My husband and I just started taking dance lessons (ballroom) and will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary next month. I'm looking for a lovely place for both dinner and dancing. Suggestions???

Rainbow Room? We were there one year just before Christmas and it was magical. The food's not great but the experience is.

Yes to Rainbow Room--you can't match the 'magic'. The Christmas after 9/11, DH and I decided to go to NYC as a present to ourselves and to support the economy of NYC. A wonderful day--ended with cocktails at the Rainbow Grille--where DH's parents had "courted" in the late 40s. Ended the evening by calling the parents (who were on the west coast) from there to share our fun day. We had stopped several places during the day, when DH said, "Just once I'd like to sign a tab under three figures." Bottom line: priceless.

You don't have to go for dinner. You can have dinner elsewhere, then pay a cover charge (and I think there's a two drink minimum) later on.

I didn't realize you could do that. I'll remember it for next time.

Only other place besides Rainbow Room (which is only open on SOME Fri/Sat nights) is Swing 46.

How about a dinner cruise in the Harbour? The food is ok but the views can't be beat and there is live music on some of the boats and dancing.

Good idea but I think dance floors are pretty small. bateauxnewyork.com is supposed to be terrific.

NYC has very arcane "cabaret" laws which means that relatively few places have dancing - since the permits are very difficult to get- and costly.

As a result, most clubs need to be packed every night to make money - and tend to cater to the younger/trendier crowd. There are relatively few places with dancing for the more mature adult.