Birthday Dinner in Bar Area

[mquinn]

So my birthday is next Thursday and I'm trying to figure out where to celebrate. Since my friends all have different work schedules and may be showing up at different times, in addition to wanting to invite a lot of people and not wanting to reserve a big table somewhere, my idea is to go to a bar that serves good food, and hopefully at least a fair amount in smaller servings. I know that I want to eat, but I don't want to force all my friends to eat and spend their money on food, but of course, I don't want to take up a table in a dining room and not have everyone order. We did something similar at Zaytinya last year, which worked really well and everyone had a great time, but I don't want to do the same thing (which also takes Jose Andres's other spots out of consideration, partly because I've been to them all several times). So, I'm looking for suggestions. A fun, lively bar with good food, where they won't mind of members of our party coming and going. Any suggestions would be helpful; thanks so much!

[DonRocks]

So my birthday is next Thursday and I'm trying to figure out where to celebrate. Since my friends all have different work schedules and may be showing up at different times, in addition to wanting to invite a lot of people and not wanting to reserve a big table somewhere, my idea is to go to a bar that serves good food, and hopefully at least a fair amount in smaller servings. I know that I want to eat, but I don't want to force all my friends to eat and spend their money on food, but of course, I don't want to take up a table in a dining room and not have everyone order. We did something similar at Zaytinya last year, which worked really well and everyone had a great time, but I don't want to do the same thing (which also takes Jose Andres's other spots out of consideration, partly because I've been to them all several times). So, I'm looking for suggestions. A fun, lively bar with good food, where they won't mind of members of our party coming and going. Any suggestions would be helpful; thanks so much!

You might get some ideas from this recent thread.