"This is no joke; we are not just fighting crime," Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, said during a six-hour dinner for visiting correspondents held in a 10-lantern Bedouin tent on the grounds of his residence.
Less than two weeks ago, Clinton hosted a nearly two-hour dinner for some of the tech industry's leading thinkers and innovators.
For much of the campaign, Mr. Obama's highest priced events were intimate, two-hour dinners for a few dozen wealthy guests, including a question-and-answer session.
Guests pay $46 for a two-hour dinner, out of which the host receives $30.
As the sun sets meander back, perhaps splurge on a cold beer, then meet friends for a two-hour dinner next to the ocean".
For the first time since Tuesday's historic election, Barack and Michelle Obama stepped out on Saturday for a three-hour dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant in Chicago.
Andy Adams, the ranch's general manager, says that executives are often so distracted by fishing, hiking and enjoying three-hour dinners, that there's "no time for them to sit there and start typing e-mails".
"What mattered to me is that they were supposed to get a wedding that they never got," said Anthony Scotto, president and chief executive of Scotto Brothers, which offered the bulk of the $20,000 to $25,000 deal, including a cocktail hour and buffet dinner for 100 guests, plus limousine service and a night at the Scottos Innn at Fox Hollow, for the newlyweds.
My friend and coauthor Carolynn Carreño happened to be in town, and when we looked at the day's schedule that they'd planned for me, we noticed that they'd allotted exactly two hours to prepare dinner for 30 people.
Five-thirty may be an unfashionable hour for dinner, but it's perhaps the best time to eat at Toro, before the crowds swarm into the hangar-like industrial space, outfitted in heavy wood, exposed steel beams, and neat rows of hanging hams.
We wound up talking during and after dinner for hours and had a fabulous time.
