Happy New Year, Motor City Kossacks! Want to get together again soon? More specifically: want to meet up to watch the Inauguration events together?
There are some details to resolve first, of course. As I realized to my chagrin about a month ago, the public events associated with the presidential Inauguration this time around are NOT on the 20th, because it’s a Sunday. (go figure!) Instead, they'll on Monday, Jan. 21st—which is potentially fine for those of us with federal or state jobs or others for which MLK Day is a holiday. But not so fine for those of us without that benefit.
As I see it, then, we have two basic choices for the date:
1) Monday, Jan. 21st, starting around 11:00 to accommodate the swearing-in (or the re-enactment of it, that is) and associated speeches, then the parade, OR
2) Some other day and time.
So that’s the first question to resolve—and I request your feedback in the comments. Obviously, if we have a critical mass of people who would like to meet on the 21st, I’m for it. (Though I admit that what constitutes “critical mass” is to be determined.)
The second question, once we have a sense of who COULD AND WOULD attend a meet-up set for one day or another, is: WHERE?
Here, let me defer to and salute the exemplary legwork that surelyujest has done on our behalf. Since our first thought was to try to meet during the Inauguration, she investigated places that 1) could accommodate a group and 2) would have a TV.
At the moment, her favorite prospect is Pasquale’s, a family Italian restaurant on Woodward Ave. near Normandy (13 ½ Mile) in Royal Oak. This is what she reports about their availability:
They could accommodate us for either way we decided to go and are fine with the idea of having us watch the events there. They open at 11am, so we could watch the swearing in there and are open til 10pm Monday night so we could watch the ball in the evening.
If we have only a handful we can just sit at the tables by the bar and the TV there or if we have a larger group (I mentioned 5-30 people to her) we would reserve the Galleria area adjacent to the bar (the windowed area facing Woodward, divided from the bar area by a half wall) and they have several TV's for us. To use the galleria it requires a $50 deposit and we must let them know as we can--she said no later than several days in advance but if it is our whole group it should be asap.
I grew up in Royal Oak and my parents lived around the corner from Pasquale's (known as "the big restaurant" by my kids) for about a decade, so I can attest that it is a reasonably-priced restaurant with very good pizza (and other typical Italian dishes), and good service all around.
Now it’s time for you to weigh in, if you please.
Again, our questions are:
WHEN—please indicate your preference for
1) Monday Jan 21, late morning to mid-afternoon
2) an altogether different time (which you are free to suggest).
And WHERE—as in, would this location of Pasquale’s be acceptable to you? Or do you have another personal favorite to suggest?
Thank you all very much for giving detailed feedback on this possibility. I hope we can plan something of interest for a reasonably large group soon.
PS: I’m still working on clarifying the agreement of ALL our Motor City Kossacks to the terms of using group Kosmail. Please check your Kosmail to see if you have a recent message from me in this regard.
PPS: I am SURE there are still lots of Kossacks in SE MI who have not yet joined the group. Please Kosmail me for an invitation if you are interested.