10 New Venues in San Francisco for Fall Meetings and Events

OutCamp is San Francisco’s first outdoor coworking and event space. The urban campground-inspired space from co-working company Campsyte opened in SoMa in July, bringing the office to the great outdoors with Wi-Fi and printing capabilities. There's also a camp kitchen stocked with coffee and beer and kombucha on tap. OutCamp includes four quirkily named private camper trailers—George, Betsy, Sandy, and Treehouse—and tree tents. Each camper or tent accommodates five to seven people; buyouts are available. Rent out either the full venue, or the back venue and get access to all campers, firepit, barbecue grill, and sound system. The entire space is outfitted with 65 chairs, with room for as many as 200 standing guests. The back area offers room for 30 standing or 15 seated.

The 187-room AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront is opening in October in South San Francisco, just 10 minutes from San Francisco International Airport. The hotel offers five meeting spaces with neutral color palettes and views of the San Francisco Bay. The 2,680-square-foot Liberty Room is divisible into two spaces, and includes 595 square feet of pre-function space for breaks or receptions of as many as 100 guests. It accommodates 250 for theater-style events, 200 for banquets, or 250 for receptions. The Bayview room, which also can be split into two rooms, is 1,056 square feet and accommodates 100 for receptions or 80 for banquets. There’s also a 176-square-foot media salon that accommodates five guests for conferences and is available for hourly rentals. The 2,293-square-foot AC Lounge accommodates 100 for receptions or 80 for banquets. The 2,288-square-foot AC Courtyard Patio can be used for private events or as a social hub, connecting both to the Liberty Room and AC Lounge. In addition to on-site catering equipment and high-speed Internet, event room amenities include Kallpods, wireless on-demand service buttons to contact staff. 

Giants Enterprises, the entrepreneurial arm of the San Francisco Giants, debuted the redesigned California Spirit in July. The 100-foot yacht accommodates 130 for receptions or 60 for seated functions. The California Spirit offers three viewing decks, two redesigned bars, and a full onboard kitchen. The yacht’s Upper Salon is outfitted with a full bar, leather seating, and two restrooms, while the Observation Salon offers 180-degree views, banquette seating, and an HD monitor. 

Steins Beer Garden in Mountain View expanded in June, opening a second location in Cupertino. Steins serves burgers, pretzels, and comfort food, and offers 30 draft beers along with craft cocktails and a wine program. D-Scheme Studios designed the 6,400-square-foot space, which includes a living plant wall by Habitat Horticulture and industrial accents like bright copper and filament bulbs. The restaurant holds 135 seated or approximately 200 standing inside, and 60 seated guests or approximately 100 standing outside on the 1,568-square-foot patio. Steins is available for full buyouts for 195 seated or 350 standing.

The team behind Mission Cheese opened a second location, Maker’s Common, in Berkeley in July. The new, larger space includes a market with cheese and charcuterie, and there’s also a sit-down eatery and bar serving sandwiches, salads, cheese boards, weekend brunch, and wine and beer. The seated capacity at Maker’s Common is 55 guests inside and an additional 30 in its outdoor space. The entire space can accommodate as many as 120 standing guests.

Petaluma’s McEvoy Ranch, one of the largest domestic producers of estate-grown certified-organic extra virgin olive oil, launched a new program for corporate and special events in March. The 550-acre ranch in Marin County now welcomes outside companies and groups for meetings and breakout activities such as wine and olive oil tastings, hiking, yoga, cooking classes, and tours of the ranch’s orchards, vineyards, and gardens. Six indoor and outdoor venues are available for groups at McEvoy Ranch. The Victorian accommodates as many as 100 for receptions or 90 for seated dinners, with decor like olive branch frescos and a red piano signed by recording artist Elton John. The Pagoda is reminiscent of a Chinese tea house, with 42-foot-tall ceilings, a geometric mosaic river rock floor, and suspended Venetian lights; the unique space holds 100 guests for receptions or 90 for dining. There’s also Frantoio Patio, which overlooks a pond and includes an outdoor fire pit and heat lamps. The patio hosts as many as 300 for receptions or 250 for seated dinners. Other spaces include a rustic greenhouse, which hosts 100 for receptions or 50 for seated dining; the tasting room, which hosts 20 guests inside and 60 outside by its fire pit; and an outdoor courtyard, which hosts as many as 100 for receptions or 50 for seated dinners.

Two Birds/One Stone, a St. Helena restaurant helmed by chefs Sang Yoon and Douglas Keane, expanded its private event options in June. Serving yakitori and dishes with Japanese-inspired flavors, the dining room seats 108 guests on existing tables of six, with room to seat as many as 150 when rentals are used. The private dining room, located behind a sliding glass wall, seats 36 guests using existing furniture, and as many as 48 with rentals. For a standing reception, the private dining room accommodates 75 guests. Two Birds/One Stone also hosts guests on its patio, which can accommodate as many as 38 seated. A chef even will prepare food outside for a party on a robatayaki grill. 

Robin, a new, modern omakase-style sushi restaurant from chef Adam Tortosa, opened in July in Hayes Valley. Local artists and designers collaborated on Robin’s Instagrammable interior, with details like colorful mosaic tiles and rose gold paint drips accenting the walls. Robin is available for full buyouts, and the restaurant’s capacity is 34 seated or 50 standing.

Famed Japanese restaurant Nobu opened a location in the Epiphany Hotel in downtown Palo Alto in July, and Nobu Hospitality announced plans to rebrand the hotel to Nobu Hotel Epiphany in October. Nobu Palo Alto has a total capacity of 91 guests, including its terrace. It is not available for private dining or buyouts as of now, but the 83-room hotel offers two floors of meeting space. There’s the Accelerator, which accommodates 24 guests for seated dinners or 40 for receptions, and the Tinderbox, which holds as many as eight guests for private meetings or seated meals. These two flexible meeting spaces can be combined for receptions of as many as 75 guests. The eighth floor hospitality suites feature large terraces that boast panoramic views of Stanford, Silicon Valley, and the Santa Cruz Mountains. The four rooms each are 500 square feet, with combined terrace space of 875 square feet. Each hold as many as 35 guests theatre-style, and joined together, the suites hold as many as 200 for receptions. Food and beverage service for all meeting space is provided by Nobu Palo Alto. Hotel guests are offered priority reservations at Nobu Palo Alto and the in-room dining menu is from Nobu. 

Cajun-theme Alba Ray's brings New Orleans fare and hospitality to the Mission District. The restaurant, from the team behind Causwells and Popsons Burgers, opened in January, serving menu items like tableside jambalaya, charbroiled oysters, and crawfish etoufee. Arcsine designed the 2,400-square-foot space, sourcing historic light fixtures and architectural elements from New Orleans. Alba Ray’s accommodates 100 guests seated or 120 for reception-style events, and offers family-style seafood boils for a communal, interactive dining experience.