If you're thinking of braving the throngs of a few million Obamamaniacs in Washington D.C. this January 20th, aka Inauguration Day, you might also consider reserving a seat at one of the celebrity chef dinners that will be offered in regal, private dining rooms throughout the city.

Because if you're well-healed enough to pay the exorbitant housing costs for the weekend, surely a $500 dinner won't faze you. And unlike the college kid who's renting you his broken-down studio for $2,000 per night, the chefs hosting these dinners will donate your money to charity.

Among the gastronomic luminaries will be Alice Waters, the "mother of American cuisine" and owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California; Daniel Boulud of Daniel in New York; and Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill in Chicago.

Tickets go on sale in January at brownpapertickets.com, so think twice before doing that 14th shot on New Year's Eve if you want to buy one. They're bound to go faster than a really expensive hotel room in Baltimore -- 40 miles away from D.C. -- which is to say, pretty damn fast.

[Image: US Senate]