Conflicts Between the Evite Invitation and This Page
Read James' essays.
We now have sections for Business, Computers, and Dating & Romance.
See photos from previous parties.
This page is written generically for all of my parties given at Bar Lola. If there are any conflicts between the information contained in the Evite invitation I sent to you and this page, the information in the Evite invitation supercedes the information contained in this page.
For both the large and smaller cocktail parties, we ask that people RSVP, even if they are not attending. You can tell that a response is expected because the invitation begins with "RSVP --". If you don't know whether you can attend, please RSVP "Maybe." If you don't respond, you will continue to receive reminders until you do. See our RSVP policy. If we're printing nametags for the party, we print nametags for those who RSVP "Yes," but we do not print nametags for those who RSVP "Maybe." Therefore, if you've RSVPed "Maybe" and you want a nametag printed for you, you should change your response to "Yes" by noon of the day of the party.
Bar Lola
(formerly known as The Dartmouth Cafe and Geoffrie's)
160 Commonwealth Avenue
Back Bay
(617) 266-1122
Bar Lola
Bar Lola is located on the southwest corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Dartmouth Street in Back Bay. It is located one floor below street level, so you'll need to take the stairs down. If you're taking the MBTA, take the Green line to the Copley subway stop.
There is a parting lot at the corner of Newbury and Dartmouth Streets, which is one block south of Bar Lola. There is a less expensive parking lot at the corner of Clarendon and Stuart streets.
We'll be in the bar and in the room behind the bar. If you enter through the middle entrance, turn right for the bar. If you enter through the left entrance, turn left for the bar.
For the smaller cocktail parties, we ask that people dress up. Cocktail party dress is strongly preferred. Business attire is acceptable if you're coming directly from work. Anything less formal — including business casual — is not acceptable. At a minimum, men should wear jackets and shirts with collars, and we prefer that women wear dresses or skirts. Please see our dress code. If in doubt, err on the side of overdressing slightly. We do drop from the invitation list those who are substantially underdressed. If you have any questions about the dress code, please give me a call at (781) 647-0136, which is good day and night.
The Evite invitation and reminder will tell you if I will print nametags tags for that party. If so, there will be a table in the room next to the bar, on which the nametags will be placed. If a nametag has not been printed for you, please handwrite one, neatly, listing both your first and last name.
Depending on the size of the party, we may print nametags for those who said they will attend. In other cases, we will ask that guests handwrite a nametag. Please note that unless we say otherwise, wearing a nametag is not optional. Nametags and descriptive tags should be worn on your chest, rather than your purse, your pants or your shoes. The nametags tags will be on a long table in the room behind the bar.
If we print nametags and descriptive tags for the party, we print them for those who RSVPed "Yes"; we do not print them for those who RSVPed "Maybe." Therefore, if you RSVPed "Maybe" and you want a nametag and descriptive tag printed for you, you should change your response to "Yes" no later than noon the day of the party.
Assuming we have nametags and descriptive tags, they are typically color coded:
As you enter the middle entrance, there is a place to hang coats on your left as you enter. Since this is unattended, there is obviously a small chance someone will take your coat.
If you're in the bar, facing away from Commonwealth Street, there is a door in the left corner of the bar. Go through that door. Turn slightly left for the restrooms.
You can order food at Bar Lola. Their menu is tapas.
Bar Lola accepts cash and credit cards.
We encourage you to bring several guests to the party, preferably the most interesting people you know. One girl brought nine friends to one of the parties. The most appropriate guests are those who would be eligible to join as members. Please inform your guests of the dress code. The kind of people we're looking for is explained here, and our expectations of our members are described here. If you have doubts about whether you should bring a particular person, we've learned the hard way that it's best to err on the side of caution and to not bring them, as our experience has been that when members have doubts about a particular guest, such doubts are well-founded. Our invitation list is already quite large and is growing at an increasing rate, so it's more important to focus on keeping the quality of the invitation list high than adding even more people. If you have any questions about what we look for in guests, please give James a call at (781) 647-0136, which is good day and night.
If you know ahead of time that you're going to invite someone, we strongly encourage you to e-mail James their name and e-mail address. That way, we can add them to the general invitation list and we'll print a nametag for them. If you don't know, you're free to just bring them to the party.
Please bring numerous business cards with you in case you meet people you want to follow up with. After every party, I receive several e-mails from people, saying that someone they met at the party wrote down their contact information and they can't read their handwriting. Wouldn't it be easier if the other person just handed them a business card? If you don't have business cards, Professional Taste Printing will print 1000 business cards for as low as $35.
At some of the smaller cocktail parties, we have facilitators, who will introduce you to other people if you request. You can use them to meet new friends, to find business contacts, or for dating. Facilitators wear nametags and descriptive tags with a red border. The Evite invitation will tell you whether or not there will be facilitators at the party.
During the party, you can reach me on my mobile phone (781 718-1301). Except when you know for certain that I am out (i.e., I'm hosting a party), the best number to reach me is (781) 647-0136, which is good day and night. When I'm out, I transfer the 647-0136 number to my mobile phone.
If you have not already done so, please create an Evite account. This will allow you to view all of your Evite invitations — whether sent by me or someone else — in one place. If you delete an Evite invitation sent to you, you can log into Evite and it will be there. It costs nothing to create an Evite account.
Some anti-spam programs incorrectly identify the invitations I send to them as spam (a false positive). In your e-mail package, please add jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com and info@evite.com to your white or approved list. Your company's technical support department should be able to tell you how to do this.
If you're busy and wish to not receive invitations for a certain period of time, you can suspend your membership for X months or X years. Simply write to James and tell him what X is.
If you wish to no longer receive invitations for any parties going forward (as opposed to suspending your membership), simply write to James. Before you do, please read this page and this page.