Here's a look at the best new San Francisco restaurants, corporate event venues, hotels, conference centers, and private and party rooms to open for events this fall. These new and renovated San Francisco venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
San Francisco’s historic Palace Hotel just completed a multimillion-dollar renovation of its guest rooms and public spaces. The renovation, which finished in stages this summer, included the hotel’s guest rooms, pool, fitness center, lobby, promenade, the Garden Court restaurant, and GC Lounge. Spearheaded by Beatrice Girelli of Indidesign, the circa-1875 hotel now features a contemporary design while spotlighting historic details. Its meeting space includes three ballrooms and 45,000 square feet of function space with 23 meeting rooms and four executive boardrooms.
Silicon Valley’s Hotel Valencia Santana Row is in the final stages of a renovation and design updates to its interior spaces and guest rooms. The hotel added design accents reminiscent of Old World Spain such as plaster wall treatments, wrought iron chandeliers, and reclaimed wood. It also debuted the new Terrace event space with the renovation, and changes will still be made to the front entrance and the courtyard. The venue also offers 4,000 square feet of meeting space, including the 2,268-square-foot Valencia room, which holds 170 guests for banquet-style events or 285 guests for receptions. This space can be divided in half with a portable wall. The 768-square-foot Santana room seats 50 guests for banquets or holds 80 guests for receptions. The executive boardroom seats 10, while the Bella Vista room holds 45 for receptions or 30 in a theater-style setup. The 3,996-square-foot open-air courtyard will hold 250 guests for receptions, while the Cielo rooftop holds 100 for receptions.
Union Square’s 151-room Hotel G unveiled a new meeting space in April. The 450-square-foot meeting room’s decor includes walnut flooring, lighting from Schoolhouse Electric Company, and an 11-foot hard-wired walnut table that seats 10. There’s a separate area in the meeting room with a mid-century black leather sofa, Herman Miller chairs, a walnut coffee table, and an Indian hand-dyed woven rug. Artwork in the light-filled space is provided by Creativity Explored, a San Francisco-based nonprofit art center for adults with developmental disabilities.
New prix-fixe restaurant Trestle opened at the end of April with seating for 50 diners. The restaurant is available for full buyouts. Designed by Michael Baushke of Apparatus Architecture, the space’s decor includes exposed brick and beams, blond wood, and modern light fixtures.
Husband-and-wife chef team Rupert and Carrie Blease opened Lord Stanley in Russian Hill in June. Designed by Boor Bridges Architecture, the restaurant is meant to be a cozy, informal space with a soothing neutral color scheme. Upstairs in the loft, a communal table seats 12 people. Downstairs, the restaurant seats 30 guests. The entire space is available for buyouts of groups of about 40 people.
Villa Florence completed a $9.5 million renovation this March, upgrading all guest rooms and corridors and adding seven new guest rooms. The boutique hotel in Union Square now boasts 189 total guest rooms with a contemporary look inspired by a Florentine palazzo. The hotel’s new interiors incorporate a neutral color palette with colorful accents. The second phase of the renovation, set to wrap up in late 2015 or early 2016, will cover the meeting rooms and lobby. Currently the property offers three meeting rooms: The 816-square-foot Machiavelli room seats 70 people banquet-style; the 330-square-foot Caruso room holds 28 guests conference-style; and the Da Vinci room holds 14 guests conference-style.
Epic Steak on the Embarcadero is adding a new bar to its 3,500-square-foot waterfront patio. Currently under construction, the patio bar is slated to be unveiled in early August. The patio bar will take up about 75 square feet of the existing patio and will have 10 stools and seat about 20 more at the end of the bar in the shade of an olive tree. The patio seats 85 guests total.
Straits Restaurant Group opened gastro-lounge Roots and Rye in San Jose in July. The venue offers craft whiskey cocktails and elevated American comfort food. Studio Terpeluk created an industrial look with reclaimed wood and metal accents for the venue, which seats 66 for table service, 18 at the bar, and 22 for alfresco dining. A semiprivate dining area seats 36 guests.
San Francisco’s first cat café, KitTea, opened at the end of June and is available for parties, company offsites, and other private events. The entire venue, including the Cat Lounge and Tea Lounge, is available at a fixed price per hour for as many as 25 guests at a time. The minimalist decor includes a cat mural and wooden banquettes and tables for human guests with wooden structures for cats to climb on. All cats are available for adoption.
The Crafty Fox Ale House opened in the Mission in July, offering a rotating selection of craft beer and small bites. The 2,200-square-foot venue is available for private events and easily accommodates 130 guests for receptions. The restaurant’s dining spaces include an open-air option or beer garden with communal tables.
