Here's a look at new San Francisco eateries, drinking spots, hotels, conference areas, private rooms, and other spaces to open for events this spring. The new and renovated San Francisco venues are available for corporate parties, weddings, fund-raisers, outdoor functions, business dinners, teambuilding activities, conferences, meetings, and more.
Finn Town opened in November in the Castro, serving up American comfort food with new takes on San Francisco classics. This is the newest restaurant from executive chef and co-owner Ryan Scott, who is an alum of Top Chef. The tavern’s chic look includes tufted leather seating and warm wood tones. At the 3,000-square foot restaurant, a buyout can accommodate 50 seated or 150 standing. The back bar offers a semiprivate space—separated from the restaurant with privacy curtains—for a reception of 60 guests.
The much-anticipated China Live, a 30,000-square-foot culinary and cultural concept two years in the making, is slated to open on March 1. Located in Chinatown, the four-story venue from restaurateurs George Chen and Cindy Wong-Chen offers everything from a 14,000-square-foot retail marketplace to a tea emporium. The complex boasts a 160-seat main dining room, and can host intimate parties of 10 seated guests at fine dining restaurant 8 Tables or groups of 30 in the Gold Mountain speakeasy bar and lounge. China Live has also designed a staging-event space on the third level, which will accommodate 200 people. Groups can also take over all three floors of China Live, which has room for 602 seated guests or 825 standing guests.
Hat Trick Hospitality opened Rambler in October, a restaurant and bar within Union Square’s new Hotel Zeppelin. The eatery serves California-meets-Italian fare in a space that was once home to Wolfgang Puck’s iconic Postrio restaurant. Designed by Lori Yeomans, the restaurant is designed into two spaces: a 48-seat brasserie and a 64-seat dining room. Design details in the brasserie include patterned concrete tiles, warm woods, custom metal work, and bubble glass chandeliers, while the dining room is outfitted with gray flannel banquettes, exposed brick, custom metal screens, and the four-seat Zinc Bar.
AccorHotels opened Pullman San Francisco Bay in January in Redwood City. This marks the second Pullman location of the upscale brand in North America, and the 421-room hotel (formerly a Sofitel) offers 17,000 square feet of meeting space with 19 meeting rooms. The largest space, the Grand Ballroom, can hold 700 guests for theater-style events. The Bordeaux Room and the Champagne Room each hold 350 guests for theater-style events, and guests can mingle in the hotel’s two-story, natural light-filled pre-function area.
Onsen, a stylish Japanese bathhouse and restaurant, opened in the Tenderloin in November and debuted a private event room this month. The new space offers seating for 12 via Japanese-inspired tatami chairs placed on the floor. Groups can host events in the bath space with its communal soaking tub, steam room, sauna, and cold plunge shower, or combine a trip to the baths with small bites, teas, and sake in the event room.
Kenzo Estates winery owners Kenzo and Natsuko Tsujimoto sought to opening the most authentic sushi and kaiseki experience in the United States with their new prix-fixe Napa restaurant Kenzo. Three years in the making, the restaurant opened in the end of November with a menu developed by Michelin-starred chef Hiroyuki Kanda. Almost all of the fish for sushi prepared by head chef Eiji Onoyama is delivered from the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. Natsuko Tsujimoto designed the 1,600-square-foot space with Japanese teak, cypress, and maple along with Japanese bowls, dishware, and serving pieces. The main dining room has seating for 20 at a sushi bar and tables but can accommodate more for private events. A private room seats seven guests, and the entrance to the restaurant’s interior covered courtyard could be used for cocktails or a pre-dinner reception​.
New to San Mateo is Pausa, an Italian restaurant and bar. Led by Steve Ugur and chef Andrea Giuliani, the restaurant showcases its large open kitchen with charcuterie cured onsite, a wood-burning oven, and an exhibition dough room with housemade pastas and breads. The restaurant offers numerous semiprivate dining options with menu options ranging from tasting dinners to cocktail receptions. A full buyout seats 90 guests or holds 125 for receptions, while the Bolle Room holds 32 seated guests or 50 standing guests. There’s also a 10-seat Communal Table and a Chef’s Table that seats eight guests.
Hayes Valley’s champagne bar the Riddler is devoted to all things bubbly, with glam decor like a gold-leaf ceiling, leather banquettes, and a marble topped bar. The 500-square-foot bar can accommodate 40 guests for a standing reception, with food offerings like a serve-yourself caviar station, tater tot waffles, a spread of cheese and charcuterie and desserts. Other group-friendly options include vintages of champagne and a selection of large format wines. The bar, which opened in January, is available for partial and full buyouts.
East Brother Beer Co. opened its brewery and taproom in December in Richmond, with five beers on tap (and more on the way) and food trucks making the rounds out front at the spacious warehouse. East Brother Beer Co. is open to booking private events on Monday or Tuesday, when the brewery is closed, or full buyouts on another day on a case-by-case basis. The taproom holds 200 standing guests for buyouts or groups of as many as 50 guests on days the space is open to the public.
Hyatt Place Emeryville/San Francisco Bay Area opened in November—the first new hotel to be built in Emeryville in 15 years. The 175-room hotel offers flexible meeting space with its 1,440-square-foot Ohlone Room. The meeting room seats 90 guests for theater-style events. In other configurations, it seats 48 guests in a classroom-style set-up, 80 guests at rounds, or 36 guests in a U-shape set-up.
