Whether you’re planning a family event or are just the lucky individual who volunteered to organize the company retreat, finding the perfect venue for your small group can be daunting, especially if food is involved. Fortunately, the Napa Valley is filled with hotels and restaurants that are perfectly positioned to host your event with a minimum of effort and plenty of good taste – both visual and culinary. Here are a few to consider.
Archer Hotel in Downtown Napa
This brand-new venue in downtown Napa offers a range of meeting areas, an on-site meeting specialist, staging services, customized menus, special hospitality suites for VIPs, welcome amenities, local partner recommendations for flowers, group activities, entertainment, rentals and other services.
Louis M. Martini Winery in St. Helena
The newly renovated Louis M. Martini offers elegant and modern meeting spaces for various group sizes. The Winemaker’s Table is a private wine and food demonstration area, filled with natural light and able to seat up to 40 guests, while the Founder’s Room seats up to 10 guests in a private setting with direct views into the winery’s barrel room.
Tarla Mediterranean Grill in Downtown Napa
Located right in downtown Napa, Tarla is a full-service restaurant with both main and private dining rooms and a full bar. It offers full catering and a family-style menu of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes from which you can choose a group menu. The private room comfortably accommodates between 45 and 50 people, the main dining area seats 46 including the bar, and the patio seats 14.
TORC Restaurant in Downtown Napa
This elegant restaurant is well located for an event in downtown Napa. Its second-floor private dining room has French doors that can be closed to create a private environment or opened to share the energy of the main dining room. The room features original stone walls, hardwood floors, and eastern-facing windows that offer views of the Monticello ridgeline. To the rear of the room is a working wine cellar that showcases an extensive list of local and international wines. The room features tables – crafted from a single fir tree that was felled in nearby Occidental – that can be configured to accommodate seated dinners for up to 40 guests. The room can also be arranged to welcome standing canapé receptions for up to 60 guests. If you’d like a seated dinner, owner/chef Sean O’Toole can create a custom six-course, individually plated tasting menu for the table or you can choose your own three-to-four-course meal with entrees served family style. A custom wine-pairing can also be created for each course.
Mount View Hotel in Calistoga
This historic Calistoga hotel features the Indie Lounge, located just off the lobby. With 350 square feet, it can seat up to 22 people and can be set up in a conference, dining, or cocktail format. Catering is available from the on-site JoLe Restaurant, and there’s a flat per diem rate with complimentary beverage service. Free Wi-Fi and speakerphone are also provided, as well as a large-screen television with HDMI and surround-sound. There are other à la carte options, including chair massage. And there’s a larger, off-site event space within walking distance that also can be customized for your event.
Meadowood Napa Valley Resort in St. Helena
At this Relais & Chateaux resort, wooded knolls and rolling lawns provide the backdrop for productive and energetic meetings. The hotel offers team-building activities including cooking- and cocktail-making classes; wine experiences with an estate sommelier; croquet; and golf tournaments on the nine-hole course or utilizing the latest Trackman software in the golf studio. The culinary team creates wine-country cuisine with ingredients fresh from the estate garden or you can take the Meadowood experience to one of the local wineries for a private dinner in a cave, barrel room, or garden as part of the meeting program.
Calistoga Spa Hot Springs in Calistoga
This hotel and spa offers 1,250 square feet of meeting space that can accommodate up to 40 people. Its Palisades meeting room includes complimentary Wi-Fi, an 80-inch flat-screen monitor pre-wired to accept HDMI and other connections, a full kitchen, fireplace, wet bar, and an outdoor patio with a barbecue grill. Groups also receive discounts on accommodations when blocks of guestrooms are reserved.
