Well, my favorite idea - cooking for them and then making a basket with booze & such got shot down fast. "I'm not going to cook for a CHEF!" said one of the participants. Oh well, we're back to square one. If you have any more ideas, please let me know. I'm guessing we're going to end up with gift cards simply because we won't be able to come to an agreement on anything else. Sweeby, We go to Damian's. We have seven attending and that's about the limit the table can accomodate. But I'm sure as little as two would be ok in there. However, if you're going to do it, get some friends to go with you. It takes up the entire evening and it's more fun with more people. IIRC the price is $75 + tax & tip. It might be slightly higher than that but I'm sure it's under $100. That does not include liquor of course. We end up spending somewhere around $130ish per person, that includes cocktails and wine. Although it's not a complete list, b4-u-eat.com has some chef tables listed, and you can google for more places that have them. I do highly recommend Damian's though. The food is fab. Let me know if you end up going! Here is a link that might be useful: chef tables list

I'm with you lowspark, as far as blaming the training. I'm a business owner, and the way our employees communicate with anyone who calls my business is extremely important to me. Every scenario is thought out, nothing is left to chance. I have a friend who owns several fast food franchises. He and his wife started with one and did all the work - along with recruiting her brother and sister. Now he pays well to have excellent management. Small franchises are either manned by an owner/operator, or by hired hands with no real manager on site. Guess which ones you get better service at? Some franchises require an owner/operator or an investor with experience in that franchise. It doesn't do all the rest of the franchises any good if there's the few that are poorly-run. People don't think it's just the one franchise. They think, "all Acme Burgers are bad!" Jerzeegirl, please reconsider not talking to the owner. You may be saving someone their entire livelihood, as most small franchises like Subway are "subsistence" shops - they bring in just enough profit for the owner's family to live on. The real problems are with large corporations/public companies (like certain phone carriers, department stores, gorcery stores) who don't foster good service, and there's noone to complain to and noone cares.

Thanks for all the feedback. Somehow I'm not surprised that it's a NYC and surrounding-areas thing. From what our attorney explained yesterday and what I got from my other real-estate forum, the NYC-area 'tip' is a result of two things. One, the title company rep is paid some nominal fee per closing and doesn't receive directly any percentage of the money we paid for our title insurance and title search. Two, the tip is a throwback to an earlier era when notaries were not allowed to charge for their services, and you tipped the title rep as appreciation for his/her attendance at the closing and the notary services provided. To his credit, our title company rep was 100% on the ball. The seller's attorney was an elderly gentleman who's semi-retired and handled the closing as a courtesy to his long-time clients; he was not on the ball at all. The title guy was on his cell phone from the moment he walked in, having things emailed and faxed and covering up for the seller's attorney's incompetence. Both my husband (who's an attorney himself) and our attorney privately agreed that the closing would have been postponed for a day or two without the title rep's willingness to work and find creative solutions to deal with seller's attorney's mistakes and oversights. So yeah, we tipped in the end. Our attorney said "optional but, for the job this guy did, reward him" and we did.

Eagle customer service is just ok compared to other manufacturers. I recommend to my customers Marvin or Jeldwen Custom. The service for both is great.