Hosting a Masters Degree small graduation party for daughter - the Sat before Christmas (a totally hateful time to have a party or a graduation, but then is when it is). We live in Boston. 15-25 people. We are paying. She wants to do a "wine thing" - but that can get quite expensive since when bars or wineries do tastings with food, they figure on making money selling bottled wine to go.

Would love to do a tapas/small plates kind of thing. We will all be staying in DC that night, so would prefer DC itself to surrounding areas. Is anything like this possible or can you help me re-form my ideas.

Hi Gail. You might check out La Tasca in DC, Penn Quarter/Chinatown area. Very good tapas, festive atmosphere (high ceiling, big bar, etc.), great flavored house-made sangrias and wines. I am not sure if you are looking for a private room, that is what really gets pricey. La Tasca has a great happy hour tapas/sangria/wine menu. I would call them and see what you can put together there. They have a downstairs, maybe you could get a section of the downstairs and make it more private. I see there are some party menus on their website.

http://www.latascausa.com/site/

http://www.lauriolplaza.com/2011/05/...la-prueba.html

Check this place out, they have a mezzanine section that's nice and are very flexible with menu planning for groups of 15 or more. Their website has a number of set group menus but you can work out your own ideas. Not sure how crowded/busy they would be with company holiday parties etc on that Saturday, you may want "festive" or maybe looking for something quieter.

So many restaurants in DC are all about small plates these days that you're not limited to tapas. I'm trying to think of one that is wine-centric and not too pricy for a group and am mostlydrawing a blank, but I will keep at it.

Lincoln has really nice small plates, and a couple of rooms that are suitable for a group (not too large). I recall nothing about their wine service.
http://lincolnrestaurant-dc.com
I see that they have a tab on their website for Private Events, so I'm sure they could create a limited menu and wine list to keep costs under control.

Oh, I just remembered Proof--I love Proof!
http://proofdc.com

They have an extensive cheese/charcuterie menu and a solid list of small plates. Best part is their wine list, which is huge and has some interesting selections in the lower price range. One idea would be to focus on less well known American wine regions, like Virginia and New York, or less well known European varietals, which will also be less pricy.

OK, sorry, I'm annoying myself now, but I thought of another place I like that is sort of wine-themed, Sonoma, on Capitol Hill.
http://www.sonomadc.com/index.html
Cheese, charcuterie, small plates, well priced wine list. I do not recall if they can accommodate a large group, though.

Can't say for sure that the Saturday before Christmas would be so awful for a restaurant party. Lots of people will be on their way out of town for the holidays. I'm sure you anxious to get a place booked though.

I think Jose Andres' Jaleo is the gold standard for tapas in DC. They do private parties as do his other restaurants all of which would be good choices for "festive" atmosphere. Oyamel (mexican) and Zaytinya (mediterranean) also have a menu based primarily on small plates. All 3 I've mentioned are located in Penn Qtr.

Other thoughts:

I attended a bridal shower at ENO, a wine bar located at the far east end of Georgetown. It was more like small bites than plates
(cheese, charcuterie, chocolates) but the presentation was lovely, the wine excellent and a very nice atmosphere. It is a short walk from the Foggy Bottom metro if you all are using public transportation.

I have hosted a lunch for 20 at Firefly (Dupont Circle). They were great people to work with and the food was quite good & very creative. Amerian only wine list (at the time, that could have changed). It was billed as an Urban Picnic.