Mark West Lodge Event Center and Restaurant

My family went to Mark West Lodge for Easter Brunch. I have had better meals at McDonalds. They ran out of «orange juice». The prime rib that was available was Raw and the next one they brought out was over done. They were out of mash potatoes and had some dry cubes that were clearly frozen potatoes put in the over. The service was just at bad. I will never go there again.

THe Easter Brunch was amazing The food was awesome The waffles with fresh strawberries and made to order omlettes Wow The Lox and the Shrimp cocktail o my was the Best Good value for an amazing Brunch Woo hoo Even the OJ was good for all who don’t drink mimosas OJ was given out Awesome Ham and Prime rib.
Keep open on a regular basis and keep us us informed Ill be there.

thank you for a really lovely dinner last night. it’s been years since we were there. the food was really delicious and staff very welcoming. we will be back, as there are many other dishes to try!

We’ve eaten here twice and both times we were pleased. The food is very good, the staff works hard, the place is charming, and the owners are lovely. It really is only 10 minutes from the freeway and easy to reach from the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. Try the Carrot Cake :-)

Had a great dinner last night. Bacon Mac and Cheese was fantastic and the mushroom Brie bruschetta was great. Chocolate pot au crime topped it all off. Monday is happy hour all day so all the beer and wine was half off. Can’t wait to go back.
Staff was great only the décor could be a little better but not off enough to lose a star.

Stop by for a glass of wine or a beer, enjoy the friendly staff. Nice to see young people working hard at there future. The spicy sliders are killin. See you there.

This is for the recently re-​opened restaurant. What a cool little hidden gem. 15 mins from Calistoga, 15 mins for Santa Rosa, well worth the trip. From the incredible service from this family owned and operated restaurant to the CIA trained chef prepared meal.
Tenderloin and mash, Slider trio, shishitos, wings, pumpkin doughnut and killer local beers. They have an incredible Mihila Kawana Pinot Noir from Russian River. They could up the rest of the wine selection which is mostly Kendall Jackson, but the place is brand new and one of the owners told us they were working on it. The places is shockingly affordable also. Hope the very best for this place and their owners. Will certainly be back maybe for Taco Tuesdays.

Just returned from a wedding at this venue, everything was pretty good. I’ll address the weird/​bad first. One of the doors going to the outside area was like cemented shut with no sign on it, so all the guests all day and night long were trying to open it and running into it. If the door doesn’t work, then lock it and put a sign up.
There was also a randomly barking yellow lab there that was being held in an office… I’m not sure why it was there or why it was in locked in an office, but it was properly annoying.
As for dinner, there was no salt and pepper at the tables, I don’t know if this is the venue’s fault or what and I’m not blaming them for it, but if you are going to hold an event at this place, make sure you bring EVERYTHING you need.
The sign hanging over the road needs to be fixed and the trellis needs to be cleaned and updated, the parkinglot too for that matter needs some attention.
For the goods:
The grass was green, the staff was working their butts off and the place seemed pretty recently updated/​painted. No complaints there. This place pretty much had it together, and if the stuff above is addressed then it’d be a 5 star venue!

Our favorite childhood restaurant has reopened!!!
After a life time of seeing this beautiful property open and close, it’s been opened as a restaurant during the week and hosts gorgeous wine county events in the beautiful redwoods. The chef is a graduate of the Cordon Bleu (CIA) and is excited to be preparing delicious small plate foods that are very tasty and satisfying.

The place just recently opened and I was stunned all the food was so inexpensive. The food was very good and tasty and should have been double the price. Example my starter salad was fresh mixed greens from farm down the hill and only $ 4. The smoky bacon Mac and cheese was ok but the bruschetta with mushrooms and Brie was FABULOUS and the chocolate crème de pote was to die for. The whole meal for two was less than $ 30. The only criticism is when they wiped off the tables next to us the solution was too strong and overpowered the fragrance of the food which disrupted the appetite.

Sliders, truffle fries, bacon mac & cheese… Awesome. Staff was Awesome as well.

First the good:
–Only one wedding per day, so you have exclusive use of the facility
–Beautiful Grounds
–Gorgeous Reception Room
–Excellent Food
–Tasty Cake
–Amazing Photographer
–Breathtaking Flowers
AND, we did have a beautiful wedding.
Apparently we were the anomaly that had a less than perfect experience with this venue…
This review is catered for the cost conscious brides…
When my Fiancé found this place, I was instantly in love. this was it, and Ali was a sweetheart! Little did I know that it would end up costing us 30k.
We initially opted to go for the full blown Hummingbird package, but re-​considered after mulling over our finances, then after Ali suggested a smaller, more affordable package (@$ 13k for 100 people) we jumped all over it. Again, had we known what this was going to cost us in the end, we would have gone with the bigger, more inclusive package, w/​less confusion.
As soon as we sent in our deposit, the confusion began. The package we picked was «new» and the vendors were not on the same page yet.
1^st the caterers kept sending us the wrong menu options & when we sent emails to clarify, kept getting more confusing answers, we certainly were not going to serve SANDWICHES at our wedding. Keep in mind that the «budget friendly» package included the absolute BARE MINIMUM & it was $ 200 for the tasting of our menu & to add an additional main course option was a whopping $ 1200 (for 100 people) on top of what we were already going to be paying MWL… but Ali «upgraded» our catering, for $ 2k more (due to the confusion) and it ended up including the menu tasting & extra menu option… sigh.
Jack (owner) also tried charging us $ 800 for a signature beverage, of which the wine we were offered for our Sangria’s (2 buck chuck) was previously paid for and left by another event… so we opted out of that idea and saved our $$. Seriously? Way to capitalize.
Food aside…
With the package comes the vendors, but not vendor pricing, they were confidential. So we never knew exactly what we were paying. But the price tag became very apparent when EACH vendor expected us to fork over hundreds $$ for every little thing from table linens to overpriced signature beverage options. Expenses we had not factored into our budget.
Case in point. The flowers. Holy crap the flowers cost a fortune! WE had NO idea just how much flowers cost, and for a supposed ALL INCLUSIVE package figured anything extra «couldn’t be that bad» boy were we WRONG!
At our appt with the flower company, we met with Becky & she was throwing ideas out left & right… of course we were thrilled with all the possibilities & said YES to everything she suggested, mind you no price information was given that day, so how were we to know that a bridesmaid bouquet was going to cost $ 66 each? How were we to factor this in our budget when we had no idea how expensive this was going to be? This was an unfair advantage to MWL.
When we received the initial bid amount for our flowers we were floored when it totaled over $ 1800! Again, we thought most of this was included because we were given the WRONG package. The confusion continues… apparently the only flowers that were included in OUR package were my bouquet, the groom boutonnière & 10 simple table arrangements… and I have 5 bridesmaids, 4 groomsmen, 2 mothers, 2 grandmothers, a grandpa, a father & a ring bearer/​flower girl to pay for, plus I wanted a decorated arch etc.
Finally after Anita (boss) got back into town, she contacts us, revises our bid/​package, scaled back our flowers to the bare minimums, sends us revision 2 & 3… In the end we paid $ 1200 extra. Sigh.
Our cake lady was meh, we had one meeting with her & she wasn’t pleasant. My Fiancé asked if there were other options for cake fillings (the ones she presented us were full of whip cream and so not tasty) It was pulling teeth to get her to agree to lemon curd filling, fresh fruit filling and real chocolate filling in our cakes. She expected us to know exactly what shape, texture & height our cake was supposed to be & was annoyed when we we needed guidance… hello…a little nudge in the right direction would have been very helpful & I don’t mean solely looking through a mass of previously decorated cake pictures from the 80’s, thank you. We left wondering if we made the right decisions.
We left the DJ to the last month per their recommendation. But we spent considerable time organizing our song choices & in choosing my wedding song. The day of our wedding our DJ seriously messed up on several key cues: ex. my wedding intro was botched & skipped, & @ recept he introduced my husband by the WRONG NAME!!! Really? My Dad said something to the DJ & guests also commented, it was embarrassing. We told Ali about this later & her response was to contact the DJ. Wow.
Jack and his team never sent us an email or letter thanking us for having our wedding at MWL, instead we get an invoice for a bar tab & corkage fees still owed. Pricele

When John and I decided to elope a week and half before leaving for our CA vacation, I frantically started emailing and calling vineyards and reception locations with our very modest budget (that asked for an officiant, a photographer who would provide images on a DVD after wards and a gorgeous location). The majority of the responses we got in wine country were «Sure we can do that for you, for $ 10,000», which was way way over our budget. Obviously if we’re spontaneously eloping on vacation, we’re not looking to spend what could pay for an entire wedding.
Just when I was about to give up and either convince john to majorly up our budget or just get married at the County Clerks office, I received a warm email from Jack Martin at Mark West Lodge. In it he said:
«I have some proposed elopement celebration details for you. You bring a bouquet, two rings, some cheese and crackers. I’ll bring the champagne and be the witness. I’d be honored. A magical setting. Everything you asked for. You are welcome to spend a leisurely afternoon enjoying the site all to your selves. Great swimming hole. Other amenities.»
He also included links and names of the vendors we’d be working with so we could research them before responding. All of this and he came in UNDER our budget. His response was so genuine and unbusiness-​like, my heart just melted and I was almost ready to tell him YES before I even got a chance to let John check things out as well.
We ended up having an incredible experience at Mark West Lodge. The property is gorgeous and calming (if you like a rustic, beautiful and homey atmosphere– we were at Creekside). No doubt it’s this way because of the love and warmth that people like Jack put into taking care of their clients. He delivered everything we asked for and more. The memories John and I will always have from that day will be more vivid and happy because while we weren’t surrounded by family and friends, we were surrounded by wonderful people like Jack Martin, Rose Barboza (our officiant) and Briana Sherry (our photographer). I wouldn’t change a thing about our elopement and I highly recommend going to Mark West Lodge for your arrangements if you are considering the same thing. Absolutely perfect!

My now wife and I had an outdoor wedding at Mark West Creekside. We had visions of a romantic, elegant, wine country wedding when we started planning — and that is exactly what we got. In all honesty — we didn’t have one issue the entire experience. The caterer that Jack (owner) partnered us with was extremely easy to work with. And that is what guests remember, the food. The best part — we didn’t go into debt to pay for the wedding. Before booking, we visited a handfull of other sites — the tough part of getting married in wine county is that most wineries are not permitted for weddings. And the ones that do = $$$. Mark West Creekside was perfect for us.

OUR WEDDING WAS PERFECT, THANKS TO ALI AND JACK, AND ALL THE MARK WEST LODGE STAFF! Honestly, I don’t think we could have picked a better venue for the biggest day of our lives. Gorgeous location, beautiful grounds, and amazing people. What more could you ask for?
From day one, Ali was absolutely perfect. She was at our beckon call — and I assure you, she was called upon quite often! She listened to us, was patient, calm, and helpful. She took all the time needed to explain procedures, costs, options, and just field general questions. She put up with our panicky moments and our silly friends. She did it all with a smile on her face and patience in her voice. It really felt like we had a friend helping us through an incredibly tough planning process! We really and truly couldn’t be happier with her service. Just amazing. Words really don’t do justice to how much she helped us overall. Her calm demeanor and professional attitude really went a long way in helping us stay sane!
The actual venue and wedding were amazing. Like any wedding, there were hiccups — but absolutely nothing was their fault. In fact, whenever there was a hiccup, (like table cards getting left off site!) the staff at Mark West went out of their way to remedy the situation. They are clearly professionals there, and it showed. Not a single stone went unturned in making sure that this wedding was perfect. The staff were SO nice. All of the bartenders, (JD in particular!), the servers, the management, everyone — we were treated like royalty. Our guests were constantly commenting on how amazing of a job they were doing. I had a very pleasant chat with Jack, and we really felt loved there. I truly felt that they cared so much about us, our guests, and our big day.
We could not be happier. Straight up. I literally had dozens of people approach me later to tell me that it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to. I think it’s very fair to give much of the credit to the staff of the Mark West Lodge. It felt like family was taking care of us, and it really made a somewhat stressful event way easier to handle. I will recommend Mark West to anyone with ears. We are ecstatic with their service. If I could give them six stars, I would.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Ali and Jack, you really helped make our wedding perfect!

Our wedding was at the end of September 2010. This was a destination wedding (we live in Colorado now). I cannot tell you how many venues I looked at online and contacted! For wanting something in Northern California and having it be somewhat wine-​country-​ish without breaking the bank, and still being BEAUTIFUL… well, this was the place!
Ali was wonderful with all of my questions and emails to her. Luckily she had worked with Amy Bridges (our wedding coordinator) in the past!
We only started planning our wedding in May 2010 and I was just so fortunate that everything worked out for us. The weather ended being great… in fact, quite WARM at the end of September! But it was really perfect.
I made a trip out to CA in August to meet with vendors and make final decisions for the wedding. I met with Ali and Amy Bridges at Mark West Lodge and really felt happy with our decision on the venue. There are beautiful hardwood floors and I could just imagine how warm it would look in the evening hours.
But to backtrack, we arrived on our wedding day to see our names displayed on the sign outside! :-) And champagne provided while we got ready (sweet!). There is a nice private room with private restroom for the bride and bridal party. It was really nice to have this space to get ready.
Outside, I was pleased to see the arrangement of seating for the ceremony that I had discussed with Ali (and Amy Bridges). Many brides have their ceremony across the flower bed /​creek, but that just seemed too far away from our guests. I wanted our ceremony to be held on the same side (and therefore closer) to our 50 or so guests. We had two large floral arrangements displayed on columns in front of the flower bed/​creek. It was perfect. One note… I wanted to have this done this way because the area behind the creekbed didn’t really look level… it always seemed a little slanted… which it actually is. So I’m happy to have made this decision. Also, I wasn’t sure about having the ceremony in the «redwood grove» on the side, which was an earlier suggestion. We actually ended up having the guitarist seated over there to play music.
The cocktail hour after the ceremony was a hit. We had my now mother-in-law’s quartet sing a number of songs, and everyone was having fun mingling, drinking, and eating yummy hors d’oeuvres.
The reception was a blast! Frances, from AMS Entertainment, was the DJ/​Emcee. We actually provided ALL the music for our reception… from Hawaiian/​local music for dinner, to specific selections for cake cutting, first dance, songs my cousin danced hula to, and swing/​oldies for the dance portion at the end. I was surprised to find out that Frances had spent time in Hawaii… and was therefore very familiar with the music we had selected to be played during dinner! She was a real sweetheart.
Regarding the arrangement of tables for the reception, we did not have a «head table» per se… we had 3 tables along the window side with the bridal party being in the middle… and 3 tables near the food/​dancing side. It worked out wonderfully! We also decided on having 8 people per table instead of the usual 10 that we were told are at a table. We wanted to give people more elbow room. :) Also, if we happened to have some extra guests, we would have been more than able to accommodate them at a table. 8 was really a perfect number. I think 10 would have been a bit crowded.
A nice thing about MWL is the full-​service bar! It’s beautiful! We had 2 bar staff for our event to make sure that everyone would have great service. They also did a great job during the cocktail hour. :)
Everything just ran so smoothly! Like I mentioned in Amy Bridges’ review (under Amy Bridges Events), if there was anything that did go wrong, I was unaware of it! That makes for fantastic vendors! Oh, and we did go with MWL’s Hummingbird package. I did go with a different baker, and we had a friend officiate our wedding. But everything was just so memorable.
Thanks to Jack (the owner) and Ali. They did a terrific job. We were getting many, many comments from our guests post-​event that just had the most fabulous time! That is the best review you can have. One guest even recommended Mark West Lodge to others when he was at work at a sales meeting! Now you know he had a great time!
Best wishes for continued success with Mark West Lodge and Gardens!
Note: One of our guests had forgotten his expensive prescription sunglasses at MWL, and they were put aside and retrieved later on! Thanks you guys! You’re the best!

When we decided to get married, our first inclination was to have an open elopement — we’d invite our parents. I was also looking for something away from home — a destination wedding per se. So, I began looking for elopement packages online. I found several in the Sonoma and Napa areas, but was really intrigued by MWL. On a short trip in June, we met with Ali and toured the venue. We didn’t need to see any other venues after we saw the gorgeous garden and the beautiful lodge.
Our wedding plans evolved to include about 60 of our family members and friends. So, we had a slightly upgraded version of the mini-​Hummingbird package, which I thought was extremely well-​priced. On another trip in August we met with all our vendors and specified our choices. We were so impressed with the quality and professionalism of the vendors. We felt like we were getting top-​notch service at a very reasonable price. Our caterer, Denise, even customized our menu for us with items that weren’t on the original catering list.
The day of our November wedding was gloriously beautiful. It had rained all day the day before, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky that day. As the bride, all I had to concern myself with was getting beautiful. Ali saw to everything else. We felt like we were in good hands. Both my husband and I have traveled a lot and enjoy good food and wine, and our experience at the MWL did not disappoint our expectations at all. Every detail was just right. As an aside, the photographer included in the package does amazing work. We are so pleased with our wedding pictures.
The following day we stopped by to take a picture in front of the marquee on our way to Napa and Jack came across the road to help us out. We had a great conversation with him about the history of the lodge and the surrounding area. He recommended we lunch at Tres Vigne in Napa — we’re so glad we did, but that’s another review.
All in all, I highly recommend the MWL if you desire an affordable wine country wedding. The interior and exterior of the property has been well-​maintained and is full of charm. I felt like we were in a large home. It was very intimate. Ali and Jack have worked hard to offer their clients the best on their special day. We couldn’t have asked for more.

We used the Hummingbird Package at Mark West Lodge for our August 2007 wedding for 100 guests. Included in our package were MWL ceremony/​reception site and wedding coordinating, catering with Park Avenue Catering, flowers with Wine Country Flowers, and photography with Timeless Treasures. We used our own DJ and Officiant. I’ve reviewed the vendors separately.
Jack and Ali at MWL are friendly, personable, mean well, and their calm, laid-​back attitude is comforting, but sometimes it is hard to figure out if they are calm because they have everything under control or if they are just laid back. Keith and I left many unreturned phone calls and e-​mails and before finally learning that Aquarius, Jack’s co-​owner who sold us the package, and the wedding coordinator left the business. Ali, who started helping us a few weeks beforehand the wedding, was much better at corresponding and answering our specific questions, but perhaps because she was new to the job, she never took the lead on helping us make sure everything was in order. When we picked up the slack and did this ourselves we found a number of miscommunications between MWL and the other vendors, which made us uneasy. As clients who had purchased «all inclusive» wedding package, my husband and I are not Bridezillas but we do need to know that everything is taken care of, and we expected more from MWL since they promised 4 hours of pre-​event coordination and 12 hours of day-​of-​coordination.
Our wedding went fairly smoothly, but a couple of problems made us wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t taken the reins in organizing the event and gave us a little more stress that we would have liked.
1. Jack didn’t play our recessional music until we were half way down the isle. Ali later told us that, although we never discussed ringing the wedding bell, Jack was busy trying to ring the wedding bell for us. It is hard to dislike Jack, especially since he was trying to do something extra for us, but I was disappointed because I had selected a unique song for our recessional.
2. Keith’s dad is a wine enthusiast and he gave us his favorite wines for our wedding, so we upgraded to the indoor/​outdoor bar service and Ali promised to pour a full champagne toast immediately after our wedding and have a white wine toast waiting in the dining hall for Keith’s dad’s welcome toast.
After our ceremony Ali had champagne for the two of us, but none for our wedding party. This was embarrassing for me because I told our wedding party that there would be champagne waiting for them and we ended up with the only gasses, while they stood around empty handed. Ali later told us that they were saving it for the welcome toast! When our friends asked for drinks at the bar, they insisted on IDs. I assumed that since Ali promised to have champagne for everyone this wouldn’t be an issue. But they should have discussed this with us before the wedding so we could work out a plan to ID and mark guest over 18(which was everyone except for a 1 year old baby).
At the reception they forgot to pour the toast again! This was embarrassing as Keith’s dad’s toast was about celebrating the blessings of good friends with good wine. Ali later told me that they were saving it for the best man toast! I am not sure what happened, but they never really served the wine and beer. They eventually poured the champagne and came around once to serve the red and white wine, but they didn’t come back again and our guest were left toasting us with empty glasses. At one point, our best man, had to ask over the microphone to refill the glasses at the head table. They did, but then didn’t refill everyone else’s glasses! Ali wasn’t there and there were no servers to be found so we just enjoyed the moment as it was. They returned several cases of our wine, but we were frustrated because although this was a wine country wedding our guest barely had wine at dinner and it really wasn’t served during the dancing either. MWL would have earned hundreds more in corkage fees if they served the wine, so I don’t know what happened.
Overall, we are still very glad that we choose MWL. It has a great layout for a small to medium sized wedding so our wedding flowed nicely. And since hey already had so many flowers in the garden and the place was already set up for weddings we didn’t have to work hard to make it a beautiful wedding. Jack and Ali are good honest people. Some of the problems we faced may have been because they were going through so many organizational changes in 2007. But, now that that is settled, Jack and Ali have the potential to make it the perfect place for a wedding and I hope they do. Just quiz them before you sign up to make sure they are prepared. When we worked with them they only had a rudimentary file folder holding our names and contract. So, asking to see a sample file of how they keep track of and manage a couple’s event would be a good place to start. Good luck!

Wonderful place! My sister just got married at this site at the end of June and it couldn’t of went better. The staff is very friendly and organized and the weather turned out perfectly. The venue is very quaint and small. The wedding was for about 106 guests and it was great. They just added an outside bar to the gardens and the fountains really added a nice feel. The ambiance is great for wedding photos with lots of greenery. They have a small bridal room where 8 of us bridesmaids gathered to get ready. I would advise getting dressed elsewhere if you have alot of bridesmaids, yet the bride can get ready in comfort. I would highly reccommend this site, especially the convienence of having an all inclusive package deal which makes less stress for the bride, groom, and family.

This is an event space and a nice one at that.
Came here for a wedding-​site tour and really enjoyed it. Aquarius is a lovely man who’ll take his time in showing you what the place has to offer. Unfortuntely the tour is pretty small as it’s a pretty small venue… making it too cramped for us, but if you’re looking for a small intimate gathering this place is for you!
Basically you’ve got an amazing tiny garden and stream on a larger lot that is pretty-​much undeveloped and unmaintained beyond the garden’s borders (ie brush and woods). The wedding can take place crossing over the stream (a metaphore) or in front of it. Flowers bloom all around. Chairs are set up on the small lawn adjacent to the lodge.
Dinner is served inside the lodge which is a nice wooden space with stained glass windows (often used for indoor ceremonies).
Our issue was the low ceilings and that it was literally 3 paces from where the guests sit outside, so the transition felt rather clunky and squished. They’ve got a neat old bar area which can be set up for guests, and a patio off of that with old vines which we loved, but the view is of the highway.
I wouldn’t completely discount this place as they seemed easy to work with, it’s affordable, and the photos would for sure look amazing. Check it out if you’re looking for a small napa site!