50th Surprise Birthday Party at a Martini Bar

by Mia
(Philadelphia)

There's a very small martini bar in our town that's only open a few evenings a week. They specialize in martinis and mojitos, as well as in the Spanish appetizers called tapas.

For my girlfriend's fiftieth birthday, we called the managers and asked if we could rent the place for a small fee on a night when they were closed. They were happy for the business and so only charged us $100 to open the place and provide two waiters.

We settled on their half price menu, in other words, what they would have charged at their half-price happy hour rates which run every evening that they're open from 5 - 7. So, on the off-night, we got everything at the price we would have paid during happy hour, but from 7 - 10pm, instead of the usual prices that are in effect during that time frame.

There were about a half dozen of us women planning this party, along with her boyfriend, so this was very doable. We proceeded to set a budget with the managers that would allow pitchers of a few different martinis to circulate, along with the small tapas plates that are their signature dishes.

These were things like baked brie, bruschetta, shrimp with bacon, and so on. We got our friend into the martini bar by saying that we'd found out they were going to be open an extra night a week during the summer.

We agreed that the seven of us "girls" would dress up and just have a nice time. She was excited, but not as excited as she was when we opened the door and 20 more of her closest friends, along with her boyfriend, were waiting to yell "surprise."

The atmosphere there is very elegant, so we were dressed just right. We made sure the 2 waiters who were assigned put out the pitchers of martinis right away, along with some of the nicest appetizers. After that, the conversation flowed freely and no one worried too much as the food got simpler and the drinks less plentiful.

We had some photo albums around highlighting some of our good times together, but for the most part we just ate, drank, and talked. By the end of the evening we were all happy, and she was so grateful that we'd thought to make her fiftieth birthday a special one.

Categories: 50th, Over the Hill

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