2-6 seriously does NOT work for me, but later in the month does if it gets pushed out.

:(

For selfish reasons I was hoping earlier as I have oral surgery the following week and I thought if we did it later it would interfere with Thanksgiving.

We'll see how it interest shapes up and see if we can accommodate your schedule..

You missed a good one last Sat in the East Bay at Randy Sloan's place.

After I posted this, I realized that an East Bay Offline in the City is rather misleading. I will edit if this will let me. (Nope won't let me).

My 2 cents, I kinda like the idea of getting together in the East Bay on a semi-regular basis (as opposed to heading to SF). Its more convenient, and certainly easier to deal with in terms of corkage!

Izzy's Steakhouse sounded interesting.

How about "Aubert Pinot at Izzy's"? I'm just suggesting this because Aubert makes the only Pinot I think can stand up to a good steak!

We are open if the schedule works out.

FWIW, we've been to Izzy's once (granted, this was only one experience), but we were less than impressed. Forbes Mill in Danville is MUCH better...

I was thinking of having it in the city to get more people, but Eric I think you are right about finding a reasonable restaurant with reasonable corkage.

I have to admit I'm not thrilled with Izzy's either, but I thought it would be an inexpensive meal (for steak); they have a large space and that they might go easy on us on corkage to get the bodies in the door.

What's the menu like at Forbes Mill?

http://www.forbesmillsteakhouse.com/pdf/dinner-menu-danville-08.pdf

Nice steak house, very good steaks, though I don't recall what the corkage was. Price-wise, it's pretty steak-house-typical (expensive)

I haven't been to Izzy's yet - I had been hoping it would be good. I agree the steaks at Forbes Mill are great. I don't think the Kobe's are worth the extra fare, but the prime steaks are wonderful. I am not sure if the corkage would be reasonable - would have to find out. Locally, I can get reduced corkage at Haps, and free corkage at Wente Brothers.

Forbes Mill looks tasty. Their wine prices are through the roof...I wonder what corkage is...

Duh...says right there...$18. Not too cheap...but it's a steakhouse, after all. We'd be up to seeing you all if the date works. Any thoughts on a theme?

Tgenn, Wente sounds great but it's kind of a trek out there for some, especially if we do this during the week (I was thinking perhaps a Wednesday or Thursday).

Has anyone ever tried the Walnut Creek Yacht Club? Someone once recommended it to me.

Theme wise, I was thinking Pinot as we did Cab last time. Should we be more specific?

I haven't been to the Yacht Club, but I too have heard very good things about it. Not surprisingly, this is a very seafood-centric place, so keep that in mind...

Cali/White Burg smackdown?

If you hold it on a Wednesday through Friday I wouldn't mind making the drive down.

The Walnut Creek Yacht Club has excellent food. Chardonnay theme could be interesting. It's an expensive restaurant, however, and corkage is $20/bottle. Somebody would need to negotiate a deal to keep it reasonable.

If anybody is willing to come all the way out to Pleasanton/Livermore, we have been able to negotiate deals at several places. In addition to the restaurants I mentioned, Wente Brothers (free corkage, private room, glassware, custom menus upon request), and Haps (negotiated corkage, private room, glassware) Chris put together an excellent Pinot Noir dinner at Uncle Yu's in Livermore. We basically got all the things mentioned above for something like $85/person.

So if you want to hold this closer to civilization, maybe somebody has a relationship with a nice restaurant and can put something similar together?

tgenn,

I think Pleasanton/Livermore, is a little too far to go to during the week for those who don't live out there. However, I think it would be a great venue for a weekend event. In fact, I've read about some of your offlines on eBob!

I'm currently talking to Bistro Soizic in Oakland. It would be prix fixe menu. Waiting to hear on what they can do on the corkage.

Here is a sample prix fixe menu:

http://www.soizicbistro.com/images/menu_prix_fixe.pdf

Please confirm your interest:

Tentatively, Wednesday November 5th

Eric White - 1-2
tanglenet - 2
winegeek - 2?
saut - 2?
tgenn - 1?
jason - 1

from Winespectator:

winetarelli / whiner - 1
yhn - 1
juicy - 1
lizardking - 2