On Friday, May 12, 2006 I will be leading a group of 30 people on a wine tour in Sonoma County. These people are a middle aged to older group (like me) that enjoy drinking wine but are not at all geeky like most of us are (i.e. their favorite Chardonnay is Rombauer... if you know what I mean).

I need a place to have dinner in the Santa Rosa/Sonoma area with easy access back to 101 for our bus trip back to San Jose after the dinner. We're not looking to break the bank and, because they will have been tromping through caves and vineyards and doing lots of tasting with no spitting and riding around in a bus all day... well, it should be a rather casual place.

I thought I had the perfect place with Willi’s in Santa Rosa but… they want a guarantee of $2000 dollars ($70 a head) minimum which is more than I want to pay. I was thinking something at $40 a head tops ($1200 guarantee) with wine and liquor would be on top of that $40 as that would be “no host” (guessing another $10 a head). Probably a guarantee of $1500 would be appropriate.

We would also want to eat relatively early probably around 6:00 so we can get back to San Jose at a decent hour.

I am open to all suggestions. I don’t want anything “fancy”. Actually the “junkier” the place the better as far as I am concerned as long as the food is good and the rest-rooms are clean.

Well, it's off your path a bit (as far as directly relating to hwy 101). In the city of Sonoma there's The Red Grape. You could come down hwy 12 to Sonoma, then head out 121 to 37 back to 101. Sam Morphy is the owner, and he does do large parties/groups. (707) 996-4103. Great pizza, pasta, salads, sandwiches, calzone, even a "Thayer Burger" which they grind the meat themselves, and serve on an english muffin. Great wines by the glass, and a nice bottle list that won't break the bank. Good luck!