The steak at the Réveil Matin in the Paris suburb of Montgeron is tender, the house wine thin but acceptable, the service no worse than the usual inattentive, the bill a bit less than it would be in a more chic and higher-rent restaurant in the capital.
Steinway Street is lined with shops that sell hookahs, nonalcoholic cafés that rent hookahs, restaurants that have only a few hookahs if any, and the usual neighborhood assortment of non-hookah-related establishments.
Ms. Navin would not say how much it cost the council to rent the restaurant this year, but four years ago, the Democratic Leadership Council paid $150,000.
"Over the years we've rented out restaurants, but this year we decided to make the event more family-friendly," said Michael Casara, a sales manager who helped organize the party.
The falling rents, empty restaurants and unused limos in San Francisco are a glimpse of things to come for the rest of America.
There's nothing that can degrade a relationship in quite the same way as an argument over rent, a restaurant bill, or even who owes how much for a pack of toilet paper.
The company rented a restaurant at a health club and invited some celebrity bartenders.
He has been witness to change on 42nd Street since he first rented the restaurant in 1965.
Last week, when the program rented a restaurant on Broadway to use for a set, workers bought food and picked up extra props at local businesses.
There was this one party where they rented a restaurant.
About 50 people came to see the weirdos who'd rented a restaurant for a rap show, but to him it felt "like five million".
