‘Musical’ lunch venues for our professional groups

The closure of some big restaurants with banquet rooms — due to the deepening recession — is making it harder for our service clubs and professional groups to find a place to hold lunch meetings.

Take the Nevada County Bar Association, for example.

The group used to hold its bi-monthly meetings at the Stonehouse Restaurant in Nevada City — until it abruptly closed.

A meeting planned for September, with a much-anticipated presentation on legal ethics, was postponed until January so another venue could be found.

The new venue: The Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley, which now is threatened with closure itself. Meetings also are planned in March, May, July and September.

As reported, the Grass Valley Rotary Club also meets weekly at the Holbrooke.

Let’s hope the Holbrooke can somehow remain open: The service and professional groups sure would appreciate it.

A plan “C” for the bar association could be Kane’s, where the Grass Valley Kiwanis Club now meets. This is no doubt a logistics headache for some poor souls.

(photo from holbrooke.com)

Author: jeffpelline

Jeff Pelline is a veteran editor and award-winning journalist - in print and online. He is publisher of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine and its website SierraCulture.com. Jeff covered business and technology for The San Francisco Chronicle for 12 years, and he was a founding editor and Editor of CNET News for eight years, among other positions. Jeff has a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley and a master's from Northwestern University. His hobbies include sailing, swimming, and trout fishing in the Sierra. View all posts by jeffpelline