Make it a private affair!
For elegant Christmas lunch and dinner parties, there's no substitute for a private dining room in a swanky restaurant. All that undivided attention is guaranteed to make any group feel special! But how do you make sure you're getting the best from your booking, and what should you expect from your hosts? Joanna Harvey, Private Dining and Marketing Manager for London restaurant Zinc Bar & Grill, gives us some pointers
By Joanna Harvey
- Always visit the restaurant, meet the private dining co-ordinator, and see the space. Private dining is designed for exclusive, special events, but some private rooms are a squeeze for 20 people. So make sure it will suit your party's needs
- Ask for a menu and wine tasting, especially for larger events. That way you'll be confident the cuisine will be of a sufficiently high standard for your guests
- Make sure you know what decorations are included. At Zinc, we provide a decorated Christmas tree, and red roses and candles for the tables. For a small extra charge we can provide crackers, sparklers, etc, so always ask what is available and what you can bring yourselves
- Ask, too, whether the restaurant will personalise menus and table numbers, etc, with your organisation's logo to make the event feel more like yours. At Zinc, we do this free of charge. We even produced a cake with a company logo on it for one party - so see what people can do!
- Will your party have its own chef? The nightmare scenario is when your guests have to wait for the busy restaurant tables to be served, or worse - when half your guests have been served, and half have not! For parties up to 28 people we have one dedicated chef, and for larger groups we'll allocate two chefs
- Waiting staff - how many will you have? You need dedicated waiting staff for your private dining area, so ask what will be allocated to you. One person to cope with a party of 40 people is not enough, no matter how good they are! You'll certainly need two greeters, one to serve welcome drinks and the other to take coats, etc. Discuss staffing specifically with your intended restaurant
- Private dining rooms by their nature offer your guests a special, pampering experience - so the cuisine should match. At Zinc we have a separate menu choice from the main restaurant, offering dishes with that something extra. Ask your restaurant hosts whether they will prepare different food for your party
- These days, dietary requirements covers a lot more than just vegetarians. Make absolutely sure you know about wheat and nut allergies, etc, and any cultural preferences.
- The two most common ways of paying for a private dining room are a flat fee for the room hire, or by charging a minimum spend for the group. Beware those which charge a hefty amount before you have even ordered anything
- How flexible can the restaurant be? Large groups are inevitably more challenging to cater for than individual tables, and you can't expect an unlimited a la carte menu in a private dining room. However, a restaurant should be able to offer you two choices for each course, plus a vegetarian dish for your party. Where restaurants offer price-banded menu choices, ask whether they will mix and match to get the options you want
- Should you submit a menu order in advance, or order on the day? It's up to you. Choosing in advance means a significant time saving. Over the evening, it can take 45 minutes to 1 hour to get everyone's order in, so if speed is important or you are running to an agenda, select in advance. (Of course, the organised PA makes a note of everyone's choices, as they will surely have forgotten by the time they arrive at the restaurant!) If you're not under time-pressure, it's perhaps more elegant to let your guests choose their own meals
- If you would like to offer a welcome drink on arrival, ask the restaurant if there is an area which you can reserve for your private party. An idea for keeping the costs down can be to ask if they have any special deals on wines, etc, or to ask for a special cocktail to be prepared and served by the jug
- Find out how late the restaurant's licence is - at Zinc we serve alcohol until 12.30pm. For lunch bookings, ask at what time your party needs to be leaving. Most restaurants will need to re-claim the room by around 5.00pm in order to set up for the evening's guests. Letting your guests know this in advance may save you unseemly scenes with those revellers who have become rather too comfortable!
- As it's your private space, many dining rooms will allow smoking. You may like to consider a seating plan which as far as possible keeps all the puffers together at one end of the room
- When you have discussed all the details with your chosen restaurant, produce an Event Order and make sure all relevant parties have a copy. This will cover the arrival time, drinks, wine choices, number of bottles of wine, quality, menus, costs, etc - everything, basically! That way you limit the risk of discrepancies arising.
- As for money, you'll usually be asked to leave a fixed fee deposit to hold the room. One small point - confirm in advance how you are paying on the night. It's not uncommon to see the shock hit guests at the end of the evening as they realise that when the MD left an hour previously he took the corporate credit card with him!
- And last, but definitely not least... book early! The hottest dates for Christmas are already booked, so get your skates on!
There are eight Conran restaurants with one or more private rooms. In London you can choose from Almeida, Bluebird, Le Pont de la Tour, Plateau, Quaglino's, Sartoria and Zinc Bar & Grill, and in Birmingham you'll find a Zinc Bar & Grill. Please visit www.conran.com/events for more info or call Conran Events on 020 7716 7887
