Help needed for a regular group: Save me from Round Table or (worse yet) Sinbads!

[susancinsf]

Hello fellow/sister hounds:

I turn to you in desperation...A club I belong to has lost its regular meeting place for a meeting that we hold once a month, on a Monday evening, and we need a place to meet! We are looking for a place that would give us a private room that seats 15 to 30 persons, where we could set up our own AV equipment (ie LCD/slide projector, with our own screen, so basically we need plugs in the walls and an ability to dim lights and sound), for a two hour meeting running from either 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. or 8 to ten pm (some flexibility there). We would prefer Oakland or Berkeley, or somewhere in Contra Costa County, but Orinda or Lafayette would be preferable to Concord or further east....

The catch is, we have no money for meeting space. However, we are willing to eat dinner at the spot, and drink, and the group has some serious beer drinkers. So, the ideal spot would have the private room, good selection of beer on tap (at a minimum say, Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam, bonus points for a really good selection), and some type of cheap to moderately priced food, which we would order for dinner in exchange for the use of the room.

Many Round Tables in the bay area have such rooms, but we'd really prefer to find some place with good food, (but pizza is fine). By comparison, a sister club to ours meets at Sinbad's in SF: I don't think we would go that far,(and really need East Bay) but that may give you an understanding of the sense of desperation ...

Any suggestions welcome. We'd give them business of dinner for 15 to 30 persons once a month on a slow night (Monday), and they (and you) would have our undying appreciation!

Thanks!

p.s. I know this ps isn't about food, but if you know of community centers that might be appropriate, would love to hear about those as well, perhaps off line. One difficulty is that we are not all from the same town. This is an issue at some places where you can use a meeting room for free, if, say, you all are residents of the town that owns the meeting room....

[Anne in SF]

I know you said Concord is not preferable, but the Fuddruckers in the Willows Shopping Center has a party room upstairs that could probably accomodate y'all.

Fuddruckers
1975 Diamond Blvd.
Concord, CA 94520
Phone: [phone]

[Robert Lauriston]

Does the new Lanesplitter on Telegraph have a private room?

[Louise]

Pyramid Brewery in Berkeley mentions on their site that they have private rooms for up to 200. Obviously they have a decent beer selection.

Link: http://www.pyramidbrew.com/alehouses/...

[noisy]

I don't recall an actual private room at Pyramid, but there is an upstairs section that is usually closed off for large groups. It may not work because it's not insulated from the downstairs noise.

[Joan Kureczka]

Pyramid Brewery! They have a good function room on the second floor that the Northern California Science Writers has occasionally used for events attended by at least 30 people. Beer definitely better than average and the dinner they put together was quite acceptable in comparison to most alternatives.

[susancinsf]

bless you, that sounds like a real possibility, and I will check it out....but please feel free to keep those ideas coming in case it doesn't work...

SC

[Robert Lauriston]

I thought of Pyramid, but it's not an enclosed space, just a balcony. So you couldn't get it too dark, and the noise from downstairs might be kind of loud.

[Joan Kureczka]

Actually we had an enclosed space for the NCSWA meeting. There is always a presentation and there was no problem with noise.