I have another idea. How about the Boat House in SF at Lake Merced? I stopped by this place today and talked to them. They can easily accomodate at least 75 people as they have a separate dining room, outside porch area (see attached picture), and regular restaurant area with a large bar where people can spill over to. They seemed very casual and eager to accomodate our group if people show up at different times.

Now, its definitely not as fancy as the other places; In fact its a bit divey. Its your typical bar and grill joint, but with many pluses. Ample parking, beer, 6 pool tables, beer, air hockey, beer, view of Lake Merced, beer, fishing, beer, boating. The separate dining room has a stage so we could look into the possibility of a band.

What do you guys think...
--Andrew

PS: Did I mention they have plenty of beer.

I think the Cattlemen's in Roseville near where I live could do 150, and it has a huge parking lot. Is there one of those in the silicon valley area?

They are usually open only for dinner, so they might be OK to do an afternoon's worth of guaranteed business for special occasions. Maybe they actually do those kinds of things...

Ummm, there's a Cattlemen's (something) off of 237 & Mathilda in Santa Clara. We there recently for some work team dinner. Kinda small place, small parking, and food tastes like ass.

There's a Cattleman's steak house in Petaluma on 101 (45 min north of SF), but that may be out of the way for most.

I'm running out of ideas guys.
--Andrew

I'm referring to the chain of big steak houses. So if the only one in the area is north of San Fran, then it's out of the question. Too bad.

I'm sure the one I'm thinking of it can't be the same as the one where you said the food tastes like ass, because Cattlemen's really rocks as far as food is concerned.

Yeah must be different. I've eaten at the Cattlemen's in Petaluma several years ago - not bad.
--Andrew

How about the Pyramid Brewery (pyramidbrew.com) in Berkeley? According to the web page they can handle groups up to 200 people. They do have a fairly lage parking lot, but I doubt it would be big enough or empty enough for everyone to show off their great installs.

What we could do is adjourn to one of the UC Berkeley parking lots, which are usualy abandoned on weekends, especialy durring finals. They do charge $5 per car to park for the day, buf if we're all there with our cars you never know if they'll make us pay or call the cops to break it up. It's not a perfect solution, but parking is scarce in the bay area in general.

haha yup im in petaluma.. my friend used to work there

well if we are going to do cattering.. we should get a paypal donation thing up.. to get things covered by this gathering..

Just to clarify, the chain is Cattlemen's, which is pretty good. The place I mentioned in Santa Clara is Cattleman's. Slight difference in name, major difference in experience. Stay away from the latter, be afraid, very afraid...
--Andrew

Yeah Berkeley sounds good too! Check it out....

Tony,

I am very interested in what the decisions are going to be as to where we will all meet in NoCal. However, this thread is huge and I don't know what decisions are being made. Could you start another thread that brings us up to date on what is happening with this meeting?

Has anyone yet assumed the mantle of "Con Chair" for this meeting yet?

Could you start another thread that brings us up to date on what is happening with this meeting?

Since I am not the one who will be organizing and putting on the meet, I don't think it's appropriate for me to start a new thread. If I did, people would think I was putting on the meet, and I'm not.

Unless everyone wanted to come to the Cattlemen's in Roseville. Then I'd put it on. I'm craving ribs now...

And on the subject of "Cattlemen's", I did a web search to discover that there's about a billion steak houses with that name all over the country. They are all completely different and not affiliated in any way. Some of them are chains (there seems to be more than one chain with that name), some are independent restaurants. Makes it hard to explain to someone what you're talking about.

The one I'm referring to is a specific chain of about half a dozen restaurants in No. Cal, including the Roseville and Petaluma locations.

I'm worried that this would end up being one of those situations where everyone has a different idea of where to meet, and a different idea of how many people will show up, and it will come to nothing. How about posting up a poll to gauge the numbers. Based on the numbers, pick a place and a date and stick with it. Typically what happens is if 100 people want to attend, the place and date ends up excluding quite a few. The important thing is laying down the law and if you can't make everyone happy, so be it.

Calvin

The poll was already posted on RioCar.org, it ran its course, and was removed from the main page.

Drakino, could you please post the results of that poll?

Let me help summarize most of the feedback. These are the main factors that play a role is deciding the place where we meet:

Meet Date Poll Results: Saturday May 25 (Memorial Day Weekend).

Priorities:

• accomodate 75-150 attendies, seated as a group
• centrally located in the Bay Area, roughly between SF & SJ
• large parking lot, cars together as a group
• good food, good beer

Secondary Priorities:

• good view, scenery
• apres activities
• low expense

Did I miss anything?
--Andrew

Edited "cold beer" to "good beer".

Good summarization, except that I recommend changing

good food, cold beer

to

good food, good beer

The results are here, in this current thread. Keep in mind it was a "What timeframe" and not a "Can you come on May 25th?" poll. I could post a followup one, bit even better will be a registration database. Expect that in about a week tops.

I have some more details on 2 places that seem to fit our criteria.

The Tied House in Mountain View:

Their beer garden back room can accomodate 100+ with overflow at the bar. They are normally open on Saturdays so our group would be sharing the facility with their normal Saturday traffic which might limit our fun both inside and outside in the parking lot.

The Faultline Brewing Co. in Sunnyvale:

This place is another possibility. I talked to them today. They can also accomodate 100+ people. The good news is that they are closed on weekends, so we would have the entire place to ourselves, which gives us a lot of flexibilitty on space and time w/o worrying about their normal restaurant business. Convenient location right off of 101 & Lawrence. Of all the places I've looked into, this place gets my vote!!

Any thoughts?

--Andrew

Faultline gets my vote. But will they take our group on Saturday? Will we need to pay an admission fee or anything to cover that day if they're going to be there on their day off to feed us? How's parking?

Edit: It also gets my vote because it's very close to the convention I'll be attending. I could almost walk to the meet from the con...

I should hear back from the events person tomorrow morning and get specifics on pricing. I only talked to one of the assistant Mgrs today.

I haven't been there for a while so I'll have to drive by and check out the parking. I try not mention our parking needs in my initial conversations with these places as it raises all kinds of red flags. We want to at least give off the impression that we are law abiding citizens.
--Andrew

The faultline brewing co has a lot of parking, plus, it is next to several hotels, like the Hilton which has large parking lots as well. I haven't been to Faultline, but I've been to Aruba Grill in the Hilton, and they used to have a pretty mean hot sauce. The cook there left, so they don't seem to have anything more than the bottled stuff.

Calvin

I talked to the events person at the Fault Line this evening. Man! I'm liking this place more and more. No extra fees to open the place on Saturday especially for us, but their minimum revenue is $4000, so $40/head @ 100 people ($30/head @ 133 people). Add about $10/head for tax & tip. I am told $4000 would go very far including apps, drinks package, and choice of entrees. They can also arrange a buffet style dinner since they do quite a few weddings on weekends. We would have the whole place to ourselves for 5 hours which is a lot better than all the other places I checked into. I should be getting more details on menus and pricing packages faxed over within the next couple days. Copious parking, virtually guaranteed great weather in May, cold beers, and Fry's just across the street for you out-of-towners.

Whaddaya think??

--Andrew

Since the last meet didn't have a minimum "cover charge" (we just paid for our meals), I would suggest finding a way to gauge interest to see if everyone is willing to pay to go to the meet.

I know that I would do so without hesitation ($40.00 is about what I pay to go to most of the conventions I attend), but I can't speak for anyone else.

Perhaps a brand new thread with a poll. And sell it in the poll, give links and descriptions of the place, make sure to include the date, etc.....

Good idea, I'll have some details on food options and pricing by the end of the week, and set a separate thread with a poll next week.
--Andrew

Any other Rock-Climbers on this BBS, in the Bay area?

I might fly out for the meet, if I can find someone to go up to Pinnacles or somewhere with.

Cheers

Err.. scrub that.. Pinnacles is kinda far away. So it'll have to be Yosemite valley instead. My leading maxes out at Valley 5.10 or so.

Cheers

I have rock climbed once, ever. It was a lot of fun. I did an indoor climb, and I'm pretty out of shape and can only do the kiddy wall. :-D Ugh, gotta get back into shape!

Calvin

BTW, I started a new thread w/ a poll and some pricing options.
--Andrew