BWE '11: Going to California?

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:11 pm

Jim,

It could seat up to 90 people but it's like leg-to-leg close in the big room. We also would have the smaller room next which could accommodate 15? But there is a wall in between the two rooms so it's better to seat all of us in the same room. I think I liked the spacious room in Chocago last convention. So 36 - 48 people would be perfect for this venue. The Box SF sent me copies of the table arrangement diagrams. I have yet to see it in person though.

Werner

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:14 pm

Ok sounds good, Werner, why don't we shoot for something in the 40 range.

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:23 pm

I have a question for all potential attendees:

Initially and traditionally, we have the cost capped at $200/person. So far I have two quotes from catering service + rental at the Box SF, which would push up the cost to $250/person. Before I go back and cut corners here and there, could you all tell me if $250/person is ok with everyone?

If I hear from most of you the next 2 days it would be great.

Thanks,
Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:37 pm

One menu has hors d'oeurs, first course, main course(lamb, sea bass, or veggie), cheese, and dessert. Tea and coffee. It looks very yum. Silverware at the table, plus 1 champagne glass and 3 red vivendi (from rediel). I chose 3 red instead 2 red and 1 white because we didn't have much white wine in the past. All look very good.

Werner

Claret · Post by **Claret** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 5:10 pm

$250 is a bit steep for me

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 5:29 pm

Glenn,

Traditionally we have $200 at max. Would a 20% more, aka $220 be fine with you? I just want to see how far I could go before cutting things. As of now, I use very conservatively a headcount of 32 for calculation as some of the potential attendees would drop out, as from the experience in the past. If we do end up with 40 people attending, then I don't think we have any problem at $200 each.

Thanks,
Werner

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 5:59 pm

Werner, the last few conventions have been in the $125-150 range. I'm fine with $250 personally but my concern is that at some marginal level there are going to be people who are going to decide that $500 for two, plus travel, accomodations, etc., is going to be too expensive. But I'll defer to the majority. I think we need to get financial commitments from people a little sooner this year. Right now only 32 have expressed an interest which, based on past experience, means we'll likely have about 20-25. We get a lot of people who say they are coming who decide they are not as the date approaches, which makes things more difficult for the organizers. If we can't drum up more excitement then we should consider skipping the convention this year.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 6:22 pm

Personally, if we are willing to incur the costs of travel and lodging, then $250 for dinner will not be a show stopper for us, if we are getting top notch food, service and setting. Of course $200 would be better, but I also recognize we are shopping in a high rent district.

The bigger question for us will be if the trip is even an option; it all depends on my employement situation at that time.

Jon

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:07 pm

Jim,

So far we have 37 who have expressed an interest in attending, but as we know from the past expereince a few would drop out. So I use 32 headcounts for calculations.

I haven't seen the venue in person yet at the Box SF (a walk-throu will be on Oct 23rd Saturday). I saw the menu from one catering service and a similar sample menu from another, they did look very good. So I think we pay for good food and a nice venue. I have already succeeded in negotiating with some parties for a discount, but at the end we would still probably end up like $200/person, after cutting something like the cheese course and discounts. But this is for catering service and a private venue.

I try the catering service because I know in the past it was discussed to do it at Maureen's house in Nappa for $250 and some of us were fine with it. But it was only a possible discussion among a few people. So this time I throw it out and let everyone decide. If most of the potential attendees respond and are fine with a high-end dinner like this, then this is what I am going to work on.

I would check it out with some restaurants as a backup.

Werner

stefan · Post by **stefan** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:35 pm

Lucie and I will attend no matter what the price is. Still, $250 is expensive compared with past main events, and I hate to have people not go because of the high price. Certainly a restaurant venue or something in the East Bay would be fine with us.

Michael-P · Post by **Michael-P** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:56 am

I think we should try to keep it at $150-$200. I know that makes it more difficult to find a good venue and good food, but I would rather see more of us attend, than less. And I'm willing to give up a little on venue and food to do so.

Michael-P

Michael-P · Post by **Michael-P** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:57 am

And just to confirm, my date and I will attend, even if its more than $200.

Michael-P

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:39 pm

Thanks for the replies so far.

My goal is to have all potential attendees coming to the convention!

Then a good venue and good food that could make it happen. I am trying to find the upper limit of the budget with that all potential attendees feel comfortable, and turn it into the best venue and food we could find. So I hear you, $250 is too high. How'bout $200 for a private venue and catering service that I mentioned? I think I could make this work if everyone is ok with it.

I have checked it out with a restaurant too. So I would provide two choice:

1. $200 for a private venue and catering service. or
2. ~$150 for a restaurant venue.

We would have a walk-thru at the Box SF this Saturday. I would arrange another walk-throu in the restaurant the same day. I would report back and then we could vote for one of the above.

The restaurant is One Market, which I believe is 1-Michelin-Starred. Stuart, MichaelP and I ate there a few years ago. I don't remember how good the food is. If Stuart and MichaelP remember, you guys could chime in.

Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:55 pm

I have a briefing from the girl of the restaurant who is responsible for the private parties. It's a formula of the minimum fee in the private room =< total food cost + $20 corkage/person + 20% or %30% service charge (forget which) + sales tax, etc. My estimated quote for the restaurant is probably a bit high. It is for a 4-course dinner. The actual cost could be lower. If we choose a 3-course-dinner it's $10 cheaper. We will see.

Once we check out the private room in the restaurant and we find it good enough for our convention, I think we have a week or so to put down a $1000 deposit. So we might need some checks to send in a very short time (the girl said deposit in a few days but I will need to negotiate with her for 2 weeks) to hold the private room. So I urge all potential attendees to check out this thread to read the details in the up-coming weekend.

I think Ed would be the accountant.

Stay tuned.

Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:09 pm

I forgot to mention. The private room in the restaurant is limited for 40 people. Thanks.

Werner

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:27 pm

Thanks for taking the lead on this Werner.
I think we should strictly set the limit at 40.
A place will be reserved on a first-come-first served basis when you receive an attendee's check.
Thereafter, a waiting list will be established. If someone drops off of the 40-person attendance list, they will only get a refund if there is someone on the waiting list to replace them.

Tom In DC · Post by **Tom In DC** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:10 am

We'll do our best to attend, but $500/couple without wine is starting to sound like a Michelin 3-star!

Thanks for all your efforts, Werner -- I'm sure you'll come up with something great!

jal · Post by **jal** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:36 am

Thank you for the effort, Jill and I would also prefer the $150 restaurant option. I am sure the Box SF would have been great (it looks amazing from what I've been reading) but we are all friends and enjoy each other's company anyway, that nice setting may be a little overkill for us.

Please let me know where to mail you a check.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 3:59 am

I am in, whatever you come up with Werner. That said, I will add my agreeement for finding a venue in the $150-ish price-range, with the aim of encouraging attendance.

Let me also add my appreciation for your efforts, Werner!

Claret · Post by **Claret** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 4:40 am

$150 is a rate that works for me

Glenn

Michael-P · Post by **Michael-P** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:48 am

Werner:

I was just planning to email you directly to look into One Market, but you beat me to it!

We had wonderful service when we did a BWE gathering there some 5 years or so ago, with a group of about 10 of us. I think Moe had an "in" with the chef at that time. The food was consistently good. And all around good value.

I suppose there are some other venues we could check into, but One Market works for me. I think it might be better if we get a flat rate for the corkage instead of per bottle. We would never want to constrain BWE-ers from bringing multiple bottles each!

Let me know where to send the check.

Thanks!

Michael-P

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:45 pm

I have been to One Market a couple of times, although it has been several years. But I remember both the food and service being quite good. It seems like the kind of place that could work very well for this group, assuming the private room works.

Jon

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:59 pm

These are the things I always look for when we reserve the Saturday night venue.

1. A private room.
2. Acceptable stemware.
3. Making sure the venue understands the "concept" of what we do, i.e., lots of open bottles, social hour, blind tasting, etc. This is really critical. Sometimes we have to spend a little extra time educating them what BWE is about, etc.
4. Interesting menu (although #1 and #3 are more important.)

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 12:57 am

Michael and Jon, thanks for the comments about the service and food in One Market.

It looks like the girls from One Market would be very busy this Saturday (wedding banquet) that they are not available to show us to the private room. This would take a while. I would keep working on the Box SF and the catering service, just in case. I think $200/person would be for the venue. If needed, I would also look at other possible venues. So don't worry, folks. I will make it work.

Jim,

I have done exactly what you mentioned with the Box SF and the two catering service. I used what we did in the past. They undestand what would happen with our convention. They did wine dinners before so that's not so hard to communicate with them. Actually a chef from one catering service is a sommelier and the wine maker and owner of Dept. C. He would certainly know how to cook to our event.
I have yet to talk to the girls from One Market about the details, who are too busy right now.

Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:00 am

Michael,

Corkage fee is $20/person in the private dining room in One Market.

Werner

William P · Post by **William P** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:19 am

Thanks for taking the lead on this one Werner. I was at the Market One dinner as was Moe, Arv, Micheal P and a few others. It was great but I don't think they have a private room. I will do whatever is the final decision, but I like the $150 price since it's the week after my annual hawaii trip.

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:38 am

Bill,

They do have a few private dining rooms according to their website and the girls I talked to. They are probably very well hidden from the normal diners view.

Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:33 pm

The communication with One Market is extremely slow. I hope their dining service is better on the convention day for us, if we choose them.

I am looking at two other extra venues now, Absinthe and Grand Cafe. And they are french cuisine which looks like wine friendly. So I would work on the ~$150/person budget with these two venues. Absinthe has an $85-4-course menu according to their website.

Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:34 am

Question 1.
Would it be ok if we need to do strict hours with restaurant Absinthe?
6:00pm - 7:00pm: Welcome with Champagne
7:00pm - 7:30pm/7:45pm: Blind Tasting
7:30pm/7:45pm - 9:30pm: 3-course Dinner
9:30pm - 10:00pm BWE guests catch up with each other
All Guests leave by 10:00pm.

They charge corkage fee $30/bottles and I am thinking of 50 bottles in total including champagne and dessert wine, for 32 people. And ~$250 for crystal wine glasses (3 red and 1 champagne/person). The total should be roughly $150/person.

Question 2.
While talking to different venues, it did occur to me that it's difficult to plan without an exact number of people in mind. As Jim mentioned, we could end up 25 or 40 people coming. The difference is just huge. In the case of Absinthe, we could throw in hors d'oeurs if we have 40 people.

So I suggest a different model to work on. Let say we set the budget at $150/person and have people sending in their checks by the deadline of November 30th. If we have enough people, I would use whatever fund we recieved and plan accordingly. If the final venue happens to have more room for late comers, they are welcome. If not we will see them next convention. If not enough people responded, then we would skip the convention 1 year and the checks would be returned to the individuals. Does it work this way?

Werner

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:43 am

So far we have the following potential venues:
1. The Box SF with catering at $200/person
2. One Market at ~$150/person
3. Absinthe at ~$150/person

I have yet to take a look at the sites in person.

Werner

Claret · Post by **Claret** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:20 am

Werner,

Are any of the venues negotiable on corkage? It never hurts to ask.

I am sure that we are fully capable of opening our own bottles. Do we need servers pouring for us other than the reception and dessert wines? I envision minimal need for staff involvement in actual wine service and that is a good negotiating point for a corkage reduction.

Glenn

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:36 pm

If they will not negotiate down their $30 per bottle for the amount of incremental business our group would bring (including that they don't really need to do much for wine service), then I would end the conversation with them, making sure they understand why. I really resent when restaurants get rigid on that kind of stuff with no logic behind it. There was a venue I looked at for a smaller group dinner in Chicago last year. They could have had 12-15 additional covers in a small room not otherwise booked. But they would not budge on their $30 per bottle corkage. We took our business elsewhere and had a very nice time.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:42 pm

$30 per bottle? That's crazy. I thought it was $30 per person.... Obviously we can't do $30 per bottle.

stefan · Post by **stefan** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:01 pm

What Jim and Jon said.

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:30 pm

I was a bit shocked too that the lady was so firm on the restaurant policy. She said the boss would not allow any budge on it. I will see if she would budge later on when I could educate her more on our convention.

Glenn,

The Box SF -- no corkage fee
One Market -- $20/person
Absinthe -- $30/bottle

So far everything goes well with the Box SF. Everyone is very nice and a joy to work with, and it looks like some great food and a good venue. One Market is very corporate and vey slow for cummunication. It takes a lot of patience. If it's just for the experience working with them, I would be the first one to take our business elsewhere. But I know how it works in some companies, so it's ok. I will handle them and get what we want. Absinthe is small so their operation is probably different. For example, they have standard restaurant wine glasses which are not good enough for us, so we have to pay about $250 for crystal glassware. But after all the total cost is about the same at ~$150. It's probably the least favorite so far but cost wise it's better than the Box SF. I guess what I am trying to say is I would handle this task very business like: do whatever to get what we want.

No one comments on question #2. The reason I asked because if we know the exact number of people coming, there are other venues I could look at. Say we have 20 people coming, then I should look for a room for 20. The choice of venue would become more. I think 20 poeple for a convention is a good enough number.

Werner

William P · Post by **William P** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:44 pm

I'll prepay. It's actually easier for me to get it out of the way in November rather than in May.

JCNorthway · Post by **JCNorthway** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:55 pm

I am fine if the group wants to do an early pre-pay to lock in our size and, therefore, our options. But I don't believe that I will be able to make a commitment that early. Just my individual situation.

sdr · Post by **sdr** » Fri Oct 22, 2010 7:48 pm

As Werner mentioned, I, Michael P and our respective partners dined at One Market a few years ago and I really enjoyed the food and the experience. Service was a bit slow, but not bothersome.
If they cooperate, I would hope for a really good experience for a private event.
BWE Miami was our most expensive convention at about $240. I thought the restaurant did an excellent job but perhaps the price point (and the hotel cost) deterred some people.
Thank you Werner, for all your efforts.

Stu

aimeedogdogdog · Post by **aimeedogdogdog** » Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:15 am

David, Nancy, Ed and I went to the Box SF this aternoon. It was raining and cold outside. We felt warm and nice once we got in the venue. It has high ceiling and two adjacent rooms. There was plenty of space, which all 4 of us thought was a very good place for our convention. We like it so much we are going to look into other catering service and see what they could do for us, so to keep the cost down to our $150/person budget.

Afterwards, Chris and I went to check out Absinthe, which was very nice. The space is limited and it will fit very well for a group of 24-28 people. If we could work out a flat rate for the corkage fee, it would become very attractive for 28 people. At maximum it seats 40 people but then there would not be much space for people to walk around. It would become a just-sit-down dinner. Even if it doesn't work out for our convention dinner and if anyone who wants a venue for pre-convention dinner, I would recommend it even I haven't eaten there yet. Hey it's french cuisine how bad could it be? (ok it depends who cooks it. It could be bad, but it did look very good there.) The main dining room is nice and cozy there. I am thinking one day we would dine there.

Werner

Michael-P · Post by **Michael-P** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 5:11 pm

Werner:

Are you treasurer for 2011 too? Tell us where to send the cash!

Michael-P