where the hell are my tickets to the inaugural balls

Major parties: Most inaugural fetes ever

By MARIAN BURROS | 1/8/09 4:42 AM EST 

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Forget about the official inaugural balls, locally referred to as cattle calls, and candlelight dinners for the $50,000 donors. Washington is humming with more private parties than ever and more events geared toward the African-American community.

Illustration by Matt Wuerker

Caviar, foie gras and parties underwritten by Detroit’s not-so-Big Three automobile companies will be in short supply at this year’s inaugural festivities. What there will be more of are people, security and, despite the economy, parties.
Forget about the official inaugural balls, locally referred to as cattle calls, and candlelight dinners for the $50,000 donors. Washington is humming with more private parties than ever and more events geared toward the African-American community.
“We’re twice as busy as we were four years ago, even eight years ago,” said Eric Michael, co-owner of Occasions catering firm. “There were plenty of splashy black-tie affairs with lots of obvious luxury for the first Clinton and Bush inaugurals, but no one’s doing that this go-round.”
Because, said Carolyn Peachey, one of the city’s premier event planners, it’s not seemly. “If someone proposed serving caviar, I would tell them, ‘Bad idea,’” she said.
There are fewer baby lamb chops, fewer sit-down dinners, fewer bountiful buffets and more passed heavy hors d’oeuvres.
Mac and cheese and meatloaf are popular. Beer and wine are replacing open bars. Service has been scaled back and there are fewer flowers.
At Windows Catering, the average per-person cost for parties is down as much as 25 percent, though other caterers say prices have stayed the same.
That’s not to say there are no extravagant events.
A Jan. 19 reception for new members of Congress at Charlie Palmer Steak, just a stone’s throw from the Capitol — host unknown — will be chock full of luxury ingredients: foie gras, crab fritters with caviar, truffled beef tartare, Kumamoto oysters, quail eggs with crème fraîche and caviar, and lobster spring rolls.
But even if the host is a lobbying firm, the new ethics rules have enough loopholes to make the meal perfectly legal, as long as there are no forks or knives (chopsticks allowed) and no plates larger than 6 inches. And the all-you-can-drink open bar of premium brands is still permissible. The Blues Brothers will perform.
Much of Washington’s business is conducted at social gatherings, and that is particularly true at this Inauguration, as diplomats and locals look for ways to meet members of the new administration.
“The parties are an opportunity for people who want to become instant Washington insiders,” said Annie Boutin King, director of social catering at the Ritz-Carlton.
But the parties are equally about diplomats getting information back to their countries, said Ann Stock, vice president for institutional affairs at the Kennedy Center and former White House social secretary for the Clintons. “The excitement about the new president is worldwide,” she said.
Only the British and Kuwaitis seem to do much socializing with the locals these days, but embassies suddenly may become as important as they were during the Kennedy administration. And Reema al-Sabah, wife of Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Salem al-Sabah, is reputed to be an expert at snagging the guests everyone wants to know.
The al-Sabahs will co-host a cocktail buffet for 300 on Jan. 18, along with Mayor Adrian Fenty and his wife, Michelle, and Donald Graham of The Washington Post.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with acceptances to meet new members of administration,” said Reema al-Sabah. “We have invited prominent Obama supporters, Washington and New York movers and shakers, celebrities from the media and the entertainment industry.”
A source deeply involved in inaugural festivities said, “The word on the street is that she’s hoping to get Obama.”
The invitation from the British Embassy for a reception on Jan. 17 at the ambassador’s residence is for “the Illinois delegation to the Presidential inaugural.”
Rahm Emanuel? Desiree Rogers? Valerie Starrett? The Obamas?

 

Forget about the official inaugural balls, locally referred to as cattle calls, and candlelight dinners for the $50,000 donors. Washington is humming with more private parties than ever and more events geared toward the African-American community.

Illustration by Matt Wuerker

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Some hosts on Washington’s social list are already well-connected. A group of Washington power brokers — George and Liz Stevens; Presidential Inaugural Committee spokeswoman Linda Douglass and John Phillips; former Virginia Lt. Gov. Don Beyer and his wife, Megan; Jim Johnson and Maxine Isaacs; Toni and Dwight Bush — have joined forces to entertain 200 at the Stevenses’ Georgetown digs before the inaugural balls. Word is that the hosts may have to double the number.
On Jan. 19, Gwen Ifill of PBS is being feted at a party for her new book about the president-elect at the home of David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media Co. — which publishes The Atlantic Monthly and National Journal — and his wife, Katherine.

Both TenPenh and Central, right on the parade route, have been bought out for the morning and afternoon of Jan. 20 by the inaugural committee. Since the Secret Service has been by at least once, people are guessing that they have been reserved for Obama’s family and friends.
But some things never change. Buffy and Bill Cafritz are having their seventh quadrennial bipartisan party, along with Vernon and Ann Jordan and other Washington A-listers, for 300 at the Fairfax Hotel on Jan. 19.
Because Ford did not take a government loan, it has no compunctions about its presence at this year’s Inauguration. Its philanthropic arm, the Ford Motor Co. Fund, is having a reception for the opening of an exhibit — several years in the planning — at the National Portrait Gallery.
“Clearly with the losses we’ve had in recent years, we are being much more prudent with all of our spending,” said Tom Hoyt, a company spokesman.
The big General Motors fete is, however, no more.
For the first time, the African-American community will be out in force, according to Vanessa Reed, whose husband, Thomas, introduced Barack and Michelle Obama at the Chicago law firm where they worked.
“There are at least 100 events,” she said. “The excitement is overwhelming. A lot of organizations that the mainstream may never have heard of are coming forward, including leaders of African-American churches who are holding an inaugural ball on the 18th.”
And BET is doubling its presence. In addition to its annual honors program on Jan. 17, it will hold its first inaugural ball on Jan. 20 to benefit the America’s Promise Alliance, founded by Colin and Alma Powell.
Most of the caterers are sold out and frantically searching for additional help, as well as trucks, from as far away as New York and Atlanta. But they aren’t complaining — just wondering how to get the food and staff to parties inside the Secret Service perimeters on Jan. 20. Some are bringing air mattresses and planning to sleep at the job site.
Marian Burros, who reported for The New York Times for 27 years until her retirement last year, is a Politico contributor.