Office Holiday Party in NYC for 50 to 150 People: Bars, Lofts and Restaurant Buyouts Compared
An office holiday party for 50 to 150 people in NYC comes down to three rooms: a bar or lounge that already has the drinks, a loft you fill yourself, or a restaurant booked on minimum spend. As of 2026-11-01 the catalog lists 60 such rooms at this size, all three types at a median starting rate of $400 an hour, and they differ in everything else.
The brief: 50–150 colleagues, one evening, one budget owner
The brief is always the same and the room never is: a number from finance, a Thursday in December, a headcount that will drift until the week before, and a dozen colleagues with a view on the music. The catalog holds 141 rooms listed for 50 to 150 guests as of 2026-11-01, from $62 to $5,500 an hour, and 60 are one of the three types below: 26 bars and lounges, 26 lofts and 8 restaurants. They share a median starting rate of $400 an hour; everything else, from what the money buys to when you are asked to leave, differs, and those decide the night. Our holiday party post covers when to book; this one covers which room.
Option A: a bar or lounge buyout
A bar sells you an evening that already exists. As of 2026-11-01, 26 of the catalog’s 37 bars and lounges hold 50 to 150, from $75 to $5,500 an hour, median $400, the middle half starting between $250 and $1,000. Minimums are short: two to four hours cover 19 of the 26, the shape of a party rather than a production. The pour, the glassware, the staff and the licence come with the room, and 11 of the 26 list a sound system. What you give up is control. Settle two things before you sign: buyout or section, because a section means the CFO’s toast competes with somebody’s birthday; and the bar arrangement, since a minimum spend, an open bar and a consumption tab are different economics for the same hundred people. Hell’s Kitchen is the bar neighborhood on the site: 15 of its 19 listings hold 50 to 150, three of them bars at $250 to $2,000 an hour, in a neighborhood that stays open late, which in Midtown is rare.
Option B: an event loft with catering brought in
A loft sells you a room and nothing else, which is the point. The catalog’s 45 lofts include 26 for 50 to 150 guests as of 2026-11-01, from $86 to $2,000 an hour, median $400, the middle half between about $215 and $555. Minimums run long: 13 of the 26 ask for six hours or more, because the booking absorbs the caterer’s load-in and the cleanup after the last colleague finds their coat. Seventeen list a kitchen, nine a sound system, nine lighting equipment. You bring the bar, the food, the DJ and usually the furniture; you get a room that is yours to the walls, at an hourly rate that reads cheap until you multiply it. The Flatiron District is where the office-party loft lives: six of its 11 rooms at this size are event lofts, all between $450 and $525 an hour, four on six-hour minimums, with the subway at 23rd Street doing the logistics.
Option C: a restaurant buyout on minimum spend
A restaurant sells you dinner, and prices it as dinner. Eight of the catalog’s 16 restaurants hold 50 to 150 as of 2026-11-01, topping out at 120, from $100 to $1,000 an hour, median $400, on minimums of two to four hours. The hourly rate, though, is the number to ignore. Restaurants price on a food and beverage minimum rather than the clock, so the questions are the minimum, what it covers, whether service and tax sit inside, and which hours you have the room on a weeknight when the dining room would otherwise be turning tables. Six of the eight list a kitchen, the thing you are buying; two a sound system, the thing you are not. Williamsburg carries the catalog’s widest Brooklyn price range, $50 to $2,000 an hour across six listings, four of which hold 50 to 150, among them a restaurant for 80 at $300 an hour on a four-hour minimum.
The six criteria side by side (table)
The same six questions, asked of each room, as of 2026-11-01.
| Criterion | Bar or lounge | Loft | Restaurant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost structure | Hire fee or bar minimum; 2 to 4 hour minimums on 19 of 26 | Hourly hire; six hours or more on 13 of 26 | Food and beverage minimum; 2 to 4 hour slots |
| What is included | Bar, staff, glassware, licence; sound system on 11 of 26 | The room; kitchen on 17 of 26, sound system on 9 | Kitchen, service, tables; sound system on 2 of 8 |
| Curfew | The bar’s own hours; ask whether a buyout extends them | The building’s rules; ask before you book a band | The dinner slot; ask whether the room turns after |
| Food | Bar menu, or an outside caterer where the host allows one | Your caterer, your rentals, your load-in | The kitchen’s menu, priced into the minimum |
| Sound | Installed and tuned for the room | Yours to bring unless listed | Dining-room levels; not built for a dance floor |
| Booking lead time | Book by early November (see the holiday post); confirm the bar arrangement at the same time | Longer: your vendors need the date as much as the host does | Ask for the minimum on your date before you ask for the room |
The decision rule
Count what you are bringing. If the answer is nothing but people, book the bar: at the median rate and minimum its hire fee is $1,200 for the evening against a loft’s $2,400, and the sound and the pour are already there. If you are bringing a caterer, a DJ and a theme, book the loft and budget the six hours; a loft rewards production and punishes its absence. If the party is a dinner, book the restaurant and compare minimums, not rates. The tie-breaker is headcount drift: a bar section and a restaurant minimum flex with a late number; a loft’s rentals do not. At the top of the range, our guide to event space for 100 to 150 guests goes room by room.
FAQ
How much should a company budget per person for a holiday party venue in NYC?
Start from the hire fee, which the catalog shows, and add food and drink, which it does not. As of 2026-11-01 the median room of all three types starts at $400 an hour; at the median minimum that is $1,200 for a bar or restaurant slot and $2,400 for a loft’s six hours, or $12 and $24 a head for 100 people before anyone eats or drinks. The rest is the minimum spend or the caterer’s quote.
Is a restaurant buyout or a bar buyout cheaper?
On hire fee alone they tie: both show a median starting rate of $400 an hour and two-to-four-hour minimums as of 2026-11-01. The difference is what the money covers. A restaurant’s minimum includes dinner, so for a seated party compare it against a bar’s minimum plus a caterer’s quote; for a standing party on canapés the bar’s minimum is the whole bill.
Can we bring our own caterer to a loft?
That is the premise of a loft: 17 of the 26 at this size list a kitchen as of 2026-11-01, and the type’s landing page calls a loft a shell, not a service. Confirm with the host whether outside caterers are allowed or required, where and when they load in, and whether the minimum covers their setup hours.
Set the headcount, decide what you are bringing, then filter Venues NYC by capacity and type.