The Phoenix
Knowing how difficult it is to find a specific place to get a reception, we went out looking in Chinatown for places for it. It was a pain in the butt, but her parents were with us, and they have a knack for haggling with Chinese people. We went to the three places that have banquets in Chinatown: Furama, Three Happiness and Phoenix. Since the Bears game was just letting out when we were getting there, her parents beat us there, and were talking to the guy at Furama before us. It had decent parking, but other than that, it was just sort of OK. They have a dance floor, and wouldn't let us have the whole room, but when we walked in, the guy looked at my white scottishness and didn't hide his distaste very well. He clearly wanted to host a Chinese reception. That, or he just expected me to be picky about Chinese things because I'm not. Well, he was right. Cheap, with probably pretty good food, but no dice.
Then we went to Three Happiness. The woman there went into full-on bargain mode as soon as we said the word banquet. It was pretty much the same deal as Furama (exact same menu), but the food isn't as good, no dance floor, less time, better parking, and if we had 150 people, we could have the whole room. Heidi didn't care for the pillars they have there, but her father answered the manager's bargain mode with his own, and that man has mad bargaining skills.
I was getting a bit tired at that point, and was expecting to find nothing in Chinatown at all that I wanted, but then we went to the Phoenix. The interior was clean, well-lit, professional, and the banquet manager came and was actually friendly, didn't bat an eye about me being white, and in fact said they have a lot of mixed-race marriages there. She didn't talk much to me, but she did answer my questions. When speaking later with Heidi, I found out that I was being too direct; I was putting on my American business crap on, and asking direct questions and expecting direct answers. She wasn't offended, but she did end up directing most of her conversation to Heidi. Anyway, we can have the whole room with a minimum of 100 people (which is quite nice, I must say), it was more expensive, but good food, and they just seemed a lot more professional. There was no undue pressure, no unusual expenses, and it just seemed right. We also nailed down a date: September 2, 2006.
Scary, but cool.
Then we went to Three Happiness. The woman there went into full-on bargain mode as soon as we said the word banquet. It was pretty much the same deal as Furama (exact same menu), but the food isn't as good, no dance floor, less time, better parking, and if we had 150 people, we could have the whole room. Heidi didn't care for the pillars they have there, but her father answered the manager's bargain mode with his own, and that man has mad bargaining skills.
I was getting a bit tired at that point, and was expecting to find nothing in Chinatown at all that I wanted, but then we went to the Phoenix. The interior was clean, well-lit, professional, and the banquet manager came and was actually friendly, didn't bat an eye about me being white, and in fact said they have a lot of mixed-race marriages there. She didn't talk much to me, but she did answer my questions. When speaking later with Heidi, I found out that I was being too direct; I was putting on my American business crap on, and asking direct questions and expecting direct answers. She wasn't offended, but she did end up directing most of her conversation to Heidi. Anyway, we can have the whole room with a minimum of 100 people (which is quite nice, I must say), it was more expensive, but good food, and they just seemed a lot more professional. There was no undue pressure, no unusual expenses, and it just seemed right. We also nailed down a date: September 2, 2006.
Scary, but cool.
posted by John | 2:21 PM
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