Planning questions

Yes. The Banquet Packet is downloadable as a PDF from this site — see the button at the top of this page, or the Banquets menu.

The upstairs banquet rooms hold up to 160 guests booked together as one space, or they can be booked separately. The Riva Room seats roughly twice as many as the Thunderbird Room; otherwise the two are very similar. They are separated by a central foyer with sliding glass panel doors on either side. Floor plans can be customised, and a dance floor may affect capacity. The Thunderbird Room suits groups under 50; the Riva Room is ideal for 50–100. The entire restaurant can also be reserved — including the deck, with 160 seats under market umbrellas, and the main indoor dining room with another 90 — for a total seated capacity of 400 in season.

The deck can only be reserved as part of a full restaurant buyout. The pier is public and we cannot close it; in warmer months boating activity would interfere with an event there, and its narrow width makes it unsuitable for ceremonies — though it is a wonderful spot for photographs. In the off-season it is a nice place for an engagement or a very small ceremony, but it can never be guaranteed private or free of boat traffic, foot traffic or snow.

Yes. We can reserve the large lawn just east of the parking lot and above the beach. Depending on the water level, ceremonies can also be held on the beach cove just west of the pier — at present only small ceremonies fit there.

Ceremonies move inside to the upstairs foyer, which has a beautiful lake backdrop. We seat family on either side of the aisle, and other guests fill the two banquet rooms at dining tables or in rows of chairs on the dance floor, depending on guest count and floor plan.

No — as is typical in our area. We have many large sliding doors and windows, and enjoy a nice breeze off the lake on most summer evenings.

We do not charge room rental fees. Food and beverage spending minimums apply to book one or both rooms, and vary with the day of the week and the time of year.

All hosted food and beverage charges and fees count — except the ceremony fee, the closure fee (if applicable), the service charge and tax. The subtotal of the final bill needs to meet the minimum. If it falls short, a minimum fee is charged to bring the sales up to it.

Buy-out minimums are set from the sales history for the entire restaurant, specific to your date and to the window we are closed to the public — including set-up time. Non-peak dates and seasons carry significantly lower minimums than summer weekends.

25% of the estimate of charges, or the minimum++. As a courtesy we can tentatively hold a date without a deposit and give you first right of refusal — but once another party is interested we can only hold it for 24 hours.

25% on booking, 25% at 60 days out, 25% at 30 days out. At least 75% of the estimate is due in advance, with the balance at the conclusion of the event.

All beverages are billed on consumption — we do not offer bar packages. You may host a full bar with no restrictions, or set limits on the hosted tab. If your event carries a minimum, you may want to be sure it has been met before closing the beverage tab. If you are hosting wines by the bottle, please choose them in advance so we have the inventory on hand.

Final payment is due at the conclusion of the event. We provide an itemised bill reflecting your deposits. A 22% taxable service charge and the current tax rate are added to the subtotal. Payment can be arranged in advance with a signed credit card authorisation on file, or made in person by card or cash.

Because of the volume of events we host — more than 200 parties a year — we are not able to offer traditional complimentary tastings. We are a restaurant, so we invite clients to dine with us beforehand and order from the regular dinner menu, which features most of the entrées from the banquet menu.

The chef requires parties of 20 or more to select a banquet menu. Smaller parties of 20 or fewer may order from the full menu.

Your menu can carry three entrée choices. We add “Vegetarian & Vegan Options Available” at the bottom, and servers discuss those with any guest who asks. We print custom menus for each event on card stock, with a heading of your choice; for buffets we print buffet signs.

No. Our servers take orders on site and the chef is prepared for any combination of orders.

Yes. The chef has daily vegetarian and vegan options, communicated verbally by servers to guests who ask, and is very accommodating with allergies and restrictions. Please give us any known dietary needs in advance where possible.

Yes. Children under 10 may order from the children’s menu, currently priced at $17, with a large selection of kids’ favourites. For buffets, children under 10 are charged half price, or may still order from the children’s menu.

No — all alcohol must be purchased through the restaurant. We can sometimes special-order wines or bottled beers we do not carry, provided you commit to the number of cases; prices are set at cost plus our regular mark-up. If you have saved a special bottle or two for the day, you are welcome to bring it with payment of our corkage fee of $30 per 750 ml bottle.

No. Food must be prepared by our chef — with one exception, below.

No. Wedding cakes are the single exception to the outside-food rule. We charge $5 per person to allow outside dessert, and that fee is waived when you select a set menu that includes a Gar Woods dessert course.

No. Our liquor licence does not permit alcoholic beverages off premise — that is, outside the restaurant or deck.

We can offer a Wine & Beer Bar, a Wet Woody® Bar or a Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Bar upstairs with a bartender fee. Otherwise we keep your pre-selected wines in the upstairs server stations, and suggest tray-passing wine or the Wet Woody® on arrival to speed up the first round, alongside cocktail service from the main bar. Your guests never need to go downstairs for a drink.

Yes — one of the real advantages of an event here. Make your entrance on a wooden boat, or charter a larger yacht, catamaran or paddle wheeler and enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail cruise. Many corporate clients transfer groups on a private sunset cruise from a nearby pier, including the Hyatt Pier in Incline Village or the Tahoe City Marina. Tell us in advance so our boat valet can reserve you a space, and if you are chartering, have the boat company contact us to coordinate. We ask the captain to call before departure to re-confirm the docking time.

Vendors should contact us in advance to agree a time. The rooms may be booked or in use for public dining before your event, and cannot be guaranteed accessible more than 90 minutes before your start time.

Evening weddings can stay for a maximum of six hours — and we encourage every event to end on a high note. Daytime events need to vacate in time for evening bookings, with two hours in between.

Yes — musicians, bands and DJs are all welcome. Please let them know there is no elevator, and to allow extra time and manpower for load-in via the staircase.

We have a cordless microphone system and smart TVs with HDMI in each room; each carries a $150 A/V fee. We can also set up an amp and speakers for playlist music, but we require a professional DJ for weddings with dancing. We do not have a portable sound system for outdoor ceremonies.

Linen is included in the reception fee, or available to non-wedding groups at $10 per table. For a more rustic look, tables may be left uncovered in their natural light pine finish. We provide tall clear hurricane oil candles with silver bases as centrepieces. You are welcome to bring floral arrangements, contained candles and other table décor, as long as it can be set up within our time constraints.

Room décor should be kept modest, given the limited set-up window. The upstairs rooms already have a rustic “Old Tahoe” charm — knotty pine open-beam ceilings, wicker and hickory chairs, antler chandeliers — and a stunning lake view, so extensive decorating is rarely necessary. Tacks, nails and sticky tape damage the wood finishes and are not allowed. For ceremonies, bird seed, rice, confetti and silk flower petals are also not permitted.

No — we are limited on space and ask that brides arrive ready. The bridal party is welcome to wait in the upstairs reception room before the ceremony.

Yes. Rehearsals on the beach or lawn are fine the day before, but please let us know so we can check for conflicts. Note that our grounds crew cleans the lawn and common areas thoroughly on the morning of a ceremony — so anything that doesn’t look perfect at the rehearsal will be taken care of on the day.

Walk-in refrigerator space is very limited; we cannot store more than the smallest cake or floral pieces. Anything we do store should be boxed, and is at your own risk.

Anything left behind may be collected the next morning, before lunch or the start of any scheduled event.

Final menu details and your wine order are due no later than two weeks out.

Seven days out. At that point please give us the number of adults, children under 10, and vendors who will be served a meal. We will then send a final Event Order for your approval and signature, to be returned before the event.

Typically 5%, though our chef is flexible. You will be billed for the guarantee, or for the actual number of guests if it exceeds the guarantee.

No. Our list is simply local professionals we recommend — you are free to use others.

It depends on the shape of your day. For smaller, more casual weddings it may not be necessary at all. We are happy to talk through your specific needs — and the blog post we point couples to on this subject, by Kayla Yestal, covers the question very well.