Pre-Thanksgiving party at Theater District club ended with two stabbings, possibly by attackers armed with plastic cutlery

The turkey wasn't the only thing that was carved at a private Friendsgiving party at Bijou, 51 Stuart St., and now the Boston Licensing Board has to decide whether the club could have foreseen the slicing and done anything to prevent it.

At a hearing yesterday, BPD officers said they responded to the club around 1:50 a.m. on Nov. 23 - by then Thanksgiving - to find a large crowd milling around outside - with people arguing and fighting with each other, and one man with stab wounds to the right side of his back. As he was transported to nearby Tufts Medical Center, officers found another stabbing victim inside, sliced to the chest. He was taken to Mass. General - after he first refused medical attention.

Club attorney Stephen Miller said a private group had rented the club for a Friendsgiving party. "It was a full dinner, Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and added items like lobster, etc. so it was a rather elaborate affair with all the food," he said.

Roughly 180 people came after the doors opened at 10 p.m., including "family groups," and it was, in all, a rather jovial evening, "one of the more quiet, easier evenings" at the club, he said, adding some 18 security guards were on duty that night.

Then, out of nowhere, violence struck, he said. "They had zero warning that something was going to happen," he said.

Neither Miller nor police speculated what got two people roasted enough to go into carving mode.

Miller said all the guests were searched before entry, so neither he nor the club were able to figure out what the stabbers used to do their stabbing. "They could've been using plastic knives," or perhaps broken shards of thick plastic cups, he said.

The club gave the licensing video of one of the attacks. Miller said it clearly should the attacker making "a stabbing motion," but that the video did not show what he was using to do the stabbing.

The board meets Thursday to decide what action, if any, to take.