OGR On-Line Forum Thursday Night Dinner

I don't think it has been carved in stone yet but I did hear good comments about the Quaker Steak right next door (where TGI Fridays used to be).  That might be a good contender.  BigRail

The DCS users' group meeting on Wednesday night uses a conference room in a hotel and has it catered.  They have large tables for folks to sit around which helps people to get to know each other.  There is a bar down the hall for those that want something more than water/ice tea.  Might not work for this casual gathering, but a place where we have a room to ourselves would be great.  NO BOOTHS!

I like the idea of a Hotel conference room catered event.  There's just the logistics of head count, menu and pre payment for the catered food.

The conference room at the Hotel won't work for that kind of gathering.

The conference room at the Hotel won't work for that kind of gathering.

Why not, it's great for the DCS users' meeting.  Anticipating another restaurant-style OGR gathering, I'm not planning to attend it.  Not a really sociable setting.

"Why not, it's great for the DCS users' meeting.  Anticipating another restaurant-style OGR gathering, I'm not planning to attend it.  Not a really sociable setting."

RJR, you make an excellent point. The restaurants in the York area are typically very busy on a Thursday evening during the Meet Week and the dining area layout at most does not support the best environment for socialization. A private room with tables, rather than booths, would be more desirable if the purpose is a meet and greet. I would think that a well balanced buffet menu, and as it is now, Dutch treat, could work.

In addition to the DCS Users Meeting, we observed during our stay at the Wyndham, a nice event that was held on Friday night that was a buffet. There were individuals from the supporting organization at the door that were collecting the fee for the evening. It had about the number of participants that attend the OGR Forum dinner and looked like it was handled very well.

Just a thought.

Eddie,

The conference room at the Hotel won't work for that kind of gathering.

It's not a conference room, rather, it's a Ballroom. It works just fine for the 85+ we have at the DCS meeting and either of the two separate Ballrooms can be expanded to handle well over 2 or 3 times as many.

Who is going to pay the rental for the ballroom for the Thursday night get together?? Also, if you charge a fee to get in to pay for the room, & not enough people come, who is going to pay the balance to the hotel. Also, who is going to be in charge of it?

"Who is going to pay the rental for the ballroom for the Thursday night get together?? Also, if you charge a fee to get in to pay for the room, & not enough people come, who is going to pay the balance to the hotel. Also, who is going to be in charge of it?"

How about the folks who are responsible for the DCS meeting to chime in here. They have experience with this. Last April certainly substantiated that the restaurant route is not ideal. There is a history of attendance, so I think the organizers could get a good idea of how many would attend. If something is not working well, it would make sense to explore a different route.

Usually, the cost of the room is bourn in the food and beverage with the understanding of a minimum guaranteed count. Most often, a finale count is required weeks in advance. Buffets are often more costly than a served meal. Issues with buffets are lack of portion control and that they actually require more staff. Plated meals are a know quantity which inturn yields less redundancy. Plated meals requires the least amont of time to dispense. The upside of a buffet is that not everyone would be required to sit at a given time. A ballroom setting would certainly offer the opportunity for the hosts to address their guests as a single group and without fear of interlopers. It's an interesting thought that perhaps should be pursued.

I'm sure details will emerge prior to the meet.

That would be nice.

the ball room is nice, but the food is TERRIBLE!!!!!!

Are you commenting on a particular ballroom? Or to these type of facilities in general?

I can attest firsthand to the fact that there's allot of bad banquet food out there. The unifying element between good and bad is cost. The cost of food, add tax and gratuity, I would be surprised if you could get the job done for under $50.00 per. One big issue is that someone would have to be in charge of the event. Negotiate with the venue, solicit attendees and collect payments, cut checks, and so on, and so on. Frankly, it's probably too late to secure a venue for this fall anyway. Additionally, all this stuff requires lots of time and planning that could quite easily take the fun out of it and spoil the event.

Maybe we need to think outside the box.

All we know so far is that the OGR mgmt proclaimed last April that it would be a different venue. We have heard nothing on this front, and we know they read the postings.

So, if things just aren't jelling (?), what are alternative options we could pursue? Some suggested a banquet hall in a hotel; lots of valid concerns have surfaced above.

Since necessity is the mother of invention, let's get clever.  My other main hobby is recreational aviation - as in building fullsized airplanes that humans can get in and go fly someplace.  When we have a gathering of 100 or so, here's what we do in the evenings.

Find a hotel with a "back room" that's used for training purposes, etc. Lots of hotels have these; quite a step below banquet hall spreads, but there are tables & chairs. These rooms get used infrequently.

Since almost all of us stay at most of the hotels in the York area, (and some of us have pretty good first name basis relationships with same...),  find a hotel with one of these rooms. We don't want to scare off the non-RR types who might want to stay in the hotel after all. We each brown-bag it and byob if that's your preference. Charge something like $1 or $2 to walk in the door, and give that to the hotel as a sign of appreciation.

This won't satisfy everyone, but you have to ask:  Is the evening meal a source of nourishment, or a chance to have some laughs and renew old friendships and grow new ones?  I'd rather chew on a Big Mac and hear some stories than be crammed into a banquet hall or some restaurant where the food is sub-par and service worse.

I just want access to a beer and a burger.  Just some place informal to show up at, have a few, and leave whenever.  This can't be that hard.  BigRail

After the last couple of years going to the ogr event where the food was lousy and the service was worse we have decided to stop half way home at the Red Lobster in Lancaster. Good food and great service. 

We do it twice because we come back on Friday also. 

Granted. But I thought I heard that it was the April meet that OGR would be dropping.

Well, I certainly started a Hornet's nest with this topic. Through a contact of mine who read this topic, he has informed me that the Steak House that I could not remember is called Logan's Steakhouse in York, PA, located at 2180 York Crossing Drive. Maybe, just maybe, OGR can contact them and see if they can handle the Thursday Night OGR Group without the problems we had at Ruby Tuesday's. (Like an hour and 15 minutes to get a beer - Yes 1 hour and 15 minutes). Don't ask how long it took for the food.

So, if the OGR Group is planning to go to Logan's Steakhouse, count me in and a friend as well.

OK  Guys this is what Allen Miller posted last April about Logan's Steakhouse

These guys seem to be able to pull it off maybe someone should ask for their input.

ogrforum.ogaugerr welcome-to-the-20th-york-dcs-user-group-meeting

Jerry

If we do get this figured out in time are they supplying the chairs or are we supposed to bring our Titanic deck chairs? I don't want to go messing up someones stack if we don't have to.

Jerry

Just my opinion, but I don't see how Logan's or Quaker Steak would be any better than Ruby Tuesday's or TGI Friday's was.  We were at Logan's for dinner on Friday of last April's Meet and we waited for a long time for service and food delivery.  All venues say they could accommodate us, yet there were still complaints.  

I think the issue is that what was once a small gathering of forum members for dinner ballooned to nearly 100 people very quickly.

I've had no issue with any of the "OGR Thursday's at -----" venues, so I know I'll still have a great time breaking bread with attending forum members!

I don't know, Brian.  Last April I couldn't get bread to break.

WTG GRJ.

I guess I'd better chime in here and let you know what has been in the works since the totally unacceptable results at our last outing at Ruby Tuesdays.   But first, a little history...

 This all started with a very  informal get together out in the grass behind the Yellow Hall back when it was in operation some 14 years ago when we first created the OGR Forum. Then came the ownership change from Myron Biggar to the three of us, and we ended up with the OGR Forum Grandstand Meeting, which quickly grew to include representatives from many manufacturers and hobby contributors. 

But many of us still wanted a place where we could go later in the evening where we might be able to get a sandwich and a drink or so while we met and chatted informally with each other. That was the beginning of what we lovingly called "Friday's on Thursday", since we ended up gravitating to TGI Fridays.   That worked well enough, but we were slowly becoming a victim of our own success.  Our numbers grew from 10 or 15 the first time we met, up to 160 or so.  We were already experiencing problems with service, as well as the added phenomenon of many more folks started coming earlier in the day  to get a seat, order full dinners, and also stay for the camaraderie part of the later evening. 

Then, as you all know, TGI Fridays went totally and suddenly out of business at the York PA location, and the building was bought and being totally remodeled to a Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant.  In the mean time, myself and some other helpers like Steve Breneisen negotiated with the Ruby Tuesdays management to hold our get together at their location , complete with assurances of additional servers and kitchen help to accommodate our growing crowd.  So we cleverly renamed our get together as "Tuesday's on Thursdays". 

At first, they were relatively successful in that endeavor.  Now it is apparent that they cannot handle our growing numbers as well as their own growing regular crowd as well.  After last Fall's experience, I met with the manager at Quaker Steak and Lube and discussed with him at great length and in great detail our negative experiences.  I asked him to consider that we were obviously not going to get any smaller and wanted to know from him if he thought they could handle up to 200 of us in a reasonable and timely manner, complete with added staff and kitchen help.  He discussed this with his staff (and also with his managers I presume), and called me back.  He said that he is confident that we can all come over to their place on Thursday evening and have a great experience with both dinner and with casual happy hour type fun afterwards.  They intend to staff up for our occasion. 

All we can do is try.  But you all need to come to grips that we are, after all, quite a formidable group!  We have grown in sheer numbers to be bigger than most area restaurants' ability to seat us in one sitting.  The seating numbers at Quaker Steak and Lube is far greater than it was when it was TGI Friday's, and I do believe they can handle us.  Let's give them a try.  Maybe we can unofficially call it,

"The OGR Forum getting Quaker Steaked and Lubed!"

Why not rent a ballroom?  The answers are obvious.  Added cost , added commitment to numbers, food and drink costs, etc.  Not to mention the fact that it all becomes slightly less than the casual good times which we already know we can have without the added structure of reservations and deposits (ugh). 

And who ever thought we were not coming to York for either the Spring or Fall show has, at the least been very premature.  It almost sounds like the old joke, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!"  We are instead actually pouring more into the York experience for all of you to enjoy, so no, I sure don't see us staying home!

See you all as usual at the Fall AND the Spring York TCA Show! 

Jim Barrett, VP

OGR Publishing

O Gauge Railroading magazine

Thanks for the hard work and an update for our Thursday Nights Festivities!

No problem Dennis.  Stop by the booth and say Hi!

Mr. Barrett, I have read your reply and I agree with you. Let us try Quaker Steak and Lube. I, for one, am willing to try out any place and we all will have to see what happens. Maybe this will be the place to be, "The OGR Forum Getting Quaker Steaked and Lubed Get-To-Gether!" What say you all to this idea?

Thanks Steve.  For what its worth, I was impressed that the house manager at Quaker Steak and Lube honestly understood what the problems were, and made many good suggestions on how they could and would do better.  They are obviously used to greater crowds than the other two venues (from what I saw). 

Somebody PLEASE come up with a shorter name!  I'm obviously not that creative!

Eliot,

I volunteer to contact Quaker State and Lube and report back to this thread with what I discuss with the manager. This thread can then be used to discuss whether the results work for all of us.

Didn't you read Jim's post? It's a done deal, Jim's already set it all up.

Thanks to Jim Barrett and everyone on the OGR staff. We can finally come from Missouri for this outing and look forward to Thursday Night.

Yes, thank-you Jim for handling the details! I agree, all we can do is try! 

--Greg

Glad to hear you're coming!   Look forward to seeing you again.  It's been 3 years since the 1st TW layout festival.

Hi Chris, Glad you still remember us old hillbillies. Looking forward to see you and going to York again.

Thanks Jim for the info.  Looking forward to trying out the QS&L.  Hopefully, this will be a success this time and many more to come.

There's something unsettling about getting lubed along with a couple hundred other OGR Forum members.