10 New Boston Venues for 2019 Fall Meetings and Events

Set on 33 acres overlooking the Boston Harbor and skyline, Encore Boston Harbor hotel features more than 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space. There are a variety of options, including the 37,000-square-foot grand Picasso ballroom, which holds about 265 people for a conference-style event or nearly 2,820 for a reception. The Picasso can also be broken down into smaller configurations, or used with 21,000 square feet of seasonal waterfront lawns and gardens. Exclusive entrances to the ballroom and conference spaces allow meeting and event attendees to bypass the casino.

Spanning 16,400 square feet inside the Encore Boston Harbor, the lavish Mystique restaurant serves Asian cuisine. The entire space is available for buyouts for as many as 450 seated guests or 650 guests for a cocktail-style event. There are also a variety of private event spaces. The Salon, which measures 950 square feet, has a private bar and is ideal for cocktail parties of as many as 70 guests, or 24 seated guests. Fusuma, which measures 735 square feet, seats 16 guests at a single table, with glass pocket doors that can be opened for a chef’s table experience. Shokudo seats 36 guests or holds 50 standing and has a private bar with a view of the Mystic River. Fusuma and Shokudo can be combined to create a 1,055-square-foot space that accommodates seated dinners of 50 guests or 75 for a reception. The restaurant opened in June.

An industrial-style event space in Peabody, Olio is located in the historic building formerly known as the Strand Theater. The 6,000-square-foot space, which opened at the end of April, features soaring ceilings with exposed beams and ductwork. The venue holds 500 guests for receptions or seats 400 in a variety of configurations. Planners who provide their own audiovisual equipment are provided with three-phase power throughout the space.

Located inside the Museum of Fine Arts’s Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, 465 Bar and Restaurant is an art-filled, eatery serving seasonal New England cuisine. The 5,190-square-foot space seats 85 in the dining room and 40 in a bar/lounge area. The venue is available for partial buyouts of the semiprivate side during public hours, and full restaurant buyouts are available to corporate members on Mondays and Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed to the public. The restaurant opened in July.

Specializing in New England seafood, the Oyster Club opened in July. The 4,500-square-foot restaurant offers full buyouts for 170 seated or 200 standing guests. For smaller groups, the Club Room, a 200-square-foot private dining room that streams in natural light from Boston’s Back Bay, seats 25 guests or holds 40 for receptions. Ship Side, a 1,500-square-foot semiprivate portion of the dining room, seats 30. The 2,000-square-foot bar and raw bar areas can also be sectioned off to accommodate 30 to 50 guests for cocktail-style events.

Spanning 58,000 square feet, the 64-room Williams Inn opened in the picturesque Berkshires in August. The property features 3,214 square feet of meeting and event space spread over a variety of unique rooms. Options include the 2,808-square-foot ballroom, which seats 135 guests for a classroom-style event or holds 375 for receptions, and has access to a stone patio, lawn, and natural areas. It can also be divided into three smaller sections. Two smaller meeting rooms, which measure 310 square feet and 394 square feet, respectively, can each seat 15 people classroom style or 20 for a theater-style event.

Located in Beacon Hill, the Emory is a neighborhood barroom and kitchen that opened in July. The 2,000-square-foot space is available for full or partial buyouts and accommodates as many as 50 seated guests or 75 for cocktail-style events. There’s also a 38-seat patio that measures nearly 400 square feet. The restaurant has three televisions and hookups for audio plug-ins.

Black Lamb is an American brasserie and raw bar that opened in July in Boston’s South End. The 46-seat restaurant is available for full or partial buyouts. A bar area seats 12 or accommodates 16 standing guests. There is also a 250-square-foot patio, which seats 28 guests. The room has full sound capabilities, with a separate audio line for those with their own devices.

A 25,000-square-foot, multilevel restaurant and bar, Banners Kitchen and Tap has a prime location on the former site of the Boston Garden. Opening in October, it will feature a variety of group dining and event options. The 4,000-square-foot main floor accommodates 288 seated or 350 standing guests and is central to the “Dream Screen,” a 39.5-foot LED television. The suite level, which accommodates 250 standing guests or 100 seated, overlooks the main floor and has private access to venue’s Topgolf Swing Suites. Each suite holds eight players at a time, though additional people can be in the suite. There’s also Blades & Boards, a 102-seat V.I.P. dining experience. The entire venue seats 575 guests and has full audiovisual capabilities.

Set to open in October, Rochambeau is a French brasserie on Boylston Street in Boston’s lively Back Bay. The two-level restaurant includes a main dining room that seats 120 guests, a 60-seat daytime café, and a 1,583-square-foot private dining room on the second floor that holds 80 seated guests or 120 for a reception. It can also be split into two smaller spaces and features floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of the neighborhood.