Meeting at a restaurant sounds good.
I remember being a bit concerned about my mom getting together with friends from her opera email list in NYC at first. But that seems to have turned out very well. Now she has friends all over the world that she has actually seen face-to-face at least once.
Hm... this reminds me that it would be very nice to have a New England Meetup. Maybe in late May. The semester will be over, and Boston is very nice that time of year.