On November 14, the Bengals will play the Colts in Indianapolis. On Wednesday, receiver Chad Ochocinco spread some advance goodwill by buying dinner at St. Elmo’s Steakhouse in Indy for 64 of his closest friends — whom he had never before met.

Ochocinco posted an open invitation on his Twitter page, and our pal Todd Wright of Sporting News Radio (who has a St. Elmo’s source) said that folks arrived in droves.

For those of you wondering, the magic number was 64 instead of 85 because the room in which the dinner occurred holds only 64 people.

Wright says that Ochocinco was very cordial and took great care of the employees.

St. Elmo’s, as you may recall, was the location of the alleged pilfering by Saints coach Sean Payton of a bottle of wine that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones supposedly had reserved during the Scouting Combine.

Ochocinco has promised additional dinner outings at road games, particularly in Atlanta on October 24 and New York on Thanksgiving. (Why do we have a feeling that Chad will be showing up for that one dressed as a Mexican pilgrim?)

Regardless, Chad is a genuine character, a brilliant self-promoter, and apparently a nice guy. He likely plunked down close to $10,000 last night in after-tax dollars and he gave 64 people he didn’t previously know an experience that they’ll likely never forget.