Shh, keep your voice down. This is a party.

Several guests at Bollywood even sketch out instant-messaging "emoticons" - the code of punctuation marks that reflects facial expressions. Mr. Rebhan and Mr. Noe, who sell quiet-party kits to aspiring hosts worldwide, were cleaning up paper after one of their parties when they retrieved a piece that read, "Talking is so early '90s."

But, while some people may be more comfortable with writing, doing so by hand is largely considered a primitive thing of the past, harking back to the giggling, note-passing days of junior high. One of Rebhan and Noe's favorite stray cards reads: "Best time I've had since passing notes in school." In fact, some guests don't write at all, communicating instead through sketches. At one party, an artist brought his own watercolors.

The scene can seem so bizarre to the uninitiated that guests often break the silence with gasps and giggles. One woman, perched near the entrance to Bollywood, receives a lot of attention for the belly-dancer coins that jingle around her waist as she walks from one end to the other delivering her notes. A dancer in New York, she admits to finding the crowd a bit geeky and the concept a little odd, but nevertheless writes in large, swirly letters to as many guests as she can.

Rebhan notes a visual awareness among quiet partiers, including close attention to body language - something people don't necessarily rely on as heavily when words fill the air. "We threw a quiet party in London, in conjunction with a TV show there, and we were on satellite from New York," he says. "A relationship expert was pointing out that the people who did well were still using body language - a raised eyebrow, eye movement, facial expressions."

But what exactly does "doing well" entail? Evan, an economics teacher from New Rochelle, N.Y., is a veteran quiet partier. The gathering at Bollywood is his fifth such occasion, and he has watched the phenomenon morph into a dating scene. Sitting in his own corner of the restaurant, juggling notes with at least five guests at any one time, he scribbles out his own interpretation of the phenomenon in neat, black ink, throwing glances at the women who walk by to drop off prose.

"By the end of the night, people just start throwing business cards at each other," writes Evan, who didn't want his last name used. He admits to having done the same - he has a stash of cards at his disposal tonight - but hopes its new nickname, "silent dating," doesn't stick.

Davinder Saroya, for one, doubts it will. Wiping down the counter as the evening comes to a close, the bartender at Bollywood has nothing but compliments for Noe and Rebhan, as well as for the company the event draws. "I love it," he whispers enthusiastically, gesturing to the tables. "It's a very nice break from all the noise, and the people are so polite."

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