The city’s decision gives the riverfront beer garden more ways to attract visitors while it awaits a long-planned hotel and condo redevelopment.
Live music and mini golf are on the way to Napa Yard, the riverfront beer garden in the Oxbow District, after the city’s Planning Commission signed off Thursday on expanding its entertainment options.
The approval allows Napa Yard to host four ticketed events with amplified music each year — up to 200 guests per event — and play amplified music Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The beer garden can also add a mini golf course using four shipping containers for storage and operation, and hold as many as 12 craft markets with up to 30 vendors annually.
For owner Chris Lehman, the changes are meant to help the business survive rising costs.
“We’re basically a restaurant, and we can’t really survive being a restaurant with the increased costs,” he said. “And family budgets are getting squeezed, so we want to give them something to do besides coming to eat and drink.”
Napa Yard opened in 2022 under a permit that limited it to acoustic music and required extra approvals for large events. Lehman said those restrictions have been challenging.
The commission also gave preapproval for the San Francisco Giants’ Fanfest, which draws about 2,000 guests and has been held at Napa Yard twice before.
Some commissioners voiced concern about amplified noise, which must stay under 55 decibels at nearby homes and 67 in commercial areas — about the volume of a normal conversation. City staff said they are exploring a downtown-wide noise monitoring program that could use permanent decibel meters or contracted services.
Napa Yard’s permit remains temporary, set to expire in July 2026. The property, owned by Oxbow Holdings LLC, is part of a larger redevelopment plan that envisions a 170-room hotel, 130 condominiums, gardens, retail and a riverfront trail — a project still in early review and likely years from breaking ground.
The beer garden occupies a site once planned for a 5,000-square-foot restaurant under Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, which closed in 2008. The Copia complex’s main building now houses the Culinary Institute of America.
“In 60 years probably there won’t be a mini golf course and a small live music venue here, but for the foreseeable future that would be really nice,” Commissioner Alex Myers said. “And then something else can come along without too much trouble.”
You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or [email protected].
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