I don't do a lot of entertaining where people bring their kids over, but the next time I do, I'll be doing this and a few other fun ideas. Most of my friends' kids are still just babies and toddlers, so couldn't do this anyway, but something I'll be keeping in my back pocket.

I'm trying to be more willing to try new restaurants and foods - especially places I haven't tried in DC yet. I swear... I'm trying!

Today I had a lunch appointment at Source, a new-ish restaurant in DC that is inside (more or less) the Newseum, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

And this is why I love going to dinner with L.

Not only does she know how bad I am at making decisions about restaurants, but then willingly overcompensates for me by always having good, new, and interesting recommendations. So this week - a long one, with some not-so-great days - it was a great respite to try Cafe Bonaparte in Georgetown.

I'll let her tell you about our fun meal, but definitely somewhere worth trying. Key is to get there at or before 7 to have an easy parking experience and also get a good table.

This leads me to wonder what DC restaurants I need to try next - not that I'm a big "fancy restaurant" person, but I should probably step outside my comfort zone a little bit this spring!

Recently I was traveling with a client and was putting on a 30-person dinner in a town I’d never been to.

For someone as crazy about events as I am, this was a challenge. I had to put a lot of faith into recommendations and talking with people about the venue, the food, prices, transportation.

The dinner was on a Tuesday night, and I arrived late Sunday night. Monday afternoon I met with the restaurant, checked everything out, signed the contract (nothing like last minute, eh?), made a deal with a taxi company to transport everyone, and we were off.

Except one little detail…

… place cards. You never let 30 people just scramble and sit where they want at one long table, with multiple clients involved. So I started on a mission: find place cards in a strange city.

The restaurant was so fun and hip, too, that I didn’t want a plan gold foil-lined little place card. So finally I found a paper store with a great selection of note cards.

First, find a note card with significant white space to write the guests name. Check.

Second, put the note-cards-turned-place-cards on the settings (I’ve recreated a place setting here since I forgot to take pictures at the restaurant!).

Voila!

Loved it, and think I’ll do it again in the future!

For a wedding this weekend (more pictures on some fab-u-lous details at this wedding are to come…) I helped with the “dessert bar.”

This bride loves mini things. Anything mini. Mini this, mini that… she loves it! So, in addition to a cupcake tower (instead of a traditional wedding cake), she had a few friends make mini desserts and had an entire bar of them!

More on why this is in a barn – yes, it was amazing! – but I decided to make mini cheesecakes. They were a hit, although I almost had a near-mishap baking them the morning of the wedding!

I took a regular cheesecake recipe (the normal 16 oz. cream cheese, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, 1 tsp. vanilla, ¾ cups sugar, 2 eggs) and beat it until it was extra extra extra fluffy. Hey, making anything mini means you need all the fluff you can get!

But first, I had to make the contraption these little guys would go in. I used foil cupcake holders thinking they would be a little more festive than regular white ones. Then I put two vanilla wafers in the bottom of each one to act at the “crust.” I fiddled with what some other options might be, or could I put actual crust, but crumbled, in the bottom… but the suggestion in the recipe turned out to be the best one.

Next, I filled each cup about 2/3 of the way since cheesecake always expands and then falls. They popped in the oven, cooled in the refrigerator, and were ready to go!

But first, a little added decorating on half of them…

After drizzling some chocolate, I then rigged up another contraption for the travel. 88F degrees. One hour ceremony. 30 minute drive to the reception. Add those all up, forget about the idea of refrigeration at the church, and you have got yourself in a pickle.

Thankfully, after a lot of icepacks and some homemade insulation, they survived and were the best thing on the dessert bar! Okay, not really. I mean they were good, but everything else was good too!

Their color scheme was cool, but not too “seaside.” Modern, but not also with some vintage mixed in. Modern with vintage mixed in?! I can’t BELIEVE this is something I would be attracted to immediately!!...

Just some of the pretties about the place that I couldn't get enough of:

** U-shaped tables along the window wall, but on a step, with the fourth remaining chair needing to be a bistro-height chair. Theirs, studded light blue suede.



** An extremely oversized leather chair – two or three people could have sat in this chair, and it brought in the vintage Hollywood feel. I sat in it for a moment and felt like a queen!



** The modern and straight lines and cubes, which were even more highlighted when tossed in the mix with pretty and soft curves and colors.

While I didn’t take enough photos because, frankly, it was morning and we were going there for breakfast (read: I hadn’t had coffee, it was 10 a.m. Pacific… you get the point). Look through the link to get a better idea of how beautiful it is. I’ve heard rooms go for $800+ for a weekend night! Wow.

We had the most amazing breakfast at their onsite restaurant. I had an omelet – perfectly fluffy, of course – with a white cheddar and fresh mushrooms, and quite possibly the best coffee I’ve had in some time. It was finished with amazing sourdough bread and fresh blueberry jam, with a side of perfectly browned home-style potatoes.

The inside of the Shutters restaurant is “beachy” but without being too thematic. Ah… just right!