Known for its liberal politics and active student community, Berkeley is a major academic center, home to both the University of California, Berkeley, and the Berkeley National Laboratory. On the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay (opposite San Francisco), Berkeley venues provide a value alternative in a highly cultural and intellectually challenging setting. For example, the largest venue in Berkeley is the 50,000-square-foot David Brower Center, named after an environmental activist.
Serving Berkeley are both Oakland International Airport (OAK), which is 15 miles south of the city, and San Francisco International (SFO), which is 25 miles southwest. Both airports are extremely well connected to other American cities.
The aforementioned David Brower Center features a theater and a gallery-atrium-terrace space for up to 375 persons. In addition, hotel venues in Berkeley include the 378-room Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, with 13,000 square feet of meeting space; the 199-room Hotel Shattuck Plaza, with 8,000 square feet of meeting space; the 144-room Hotel Durant, a Joie de Vivre property, with space for groups of up to 75 persons; the 40-room Rose Garden Inn, with space for 30 attendees, and the very special Bancroft Hotel, which has only 22 guest rooms but also a 4,000-square-foot Great Hall. (A row of midscale hotels lines University Ave. that leads into town.)
There is a wealth of unique event venues in Berkeley. Built in 1903, the William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre, known as the Greek, has a 6,000-seat outdoor auditorium based on the theaters common to the Roman and Greek worlds of antiquity, while the Brazilian Room in Tilden Regional Park, up in the wooded hills behind Berkeley, is a breath of fresh air with low-rise buildings and pleasant grounds that can look after 225 persons for receptions. Back in town are the International House, which caters to the university's burgeoning global student population and has space for up to 450 persons; Berkeley Repertory Theatre, with room to host 558 guests, and Hillside Club, built in 1924 and with space for functions of up to 200; it was first mooted as a place to encourage good design, and the building itself took due note.
Group hunger can be abated at the His Lordship Restaurant, which sits wonderfully aloof at the tip of Shorebird Park at Berkeley Marina and has a surf n' turf menu and space for 700 persons; Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto, run by the McCormick & Schmick's chain and with space for 1,500 persons and small private rooms for between 24 and 400; Le Bateau Ivre ("The Drunken Boat"), in a building dating to 1904 and having a French menu and a private room for 100 persons; Caffe Venezia, with an Italian menu, opera singers on Fridays nights and a private room for 25, and Bistro Liaison, which also leans toward the Gallic world and can host groups of up to 60.
