Don't get me wrong: Nothing against Il Fornaio, Tamarine, Left Bank, etc as restaurants. I was at a wedding reception at Palo Alto Il Fornaio and it went fine. But I associate those places less with classy PDR dining or business-meeting dinners, often wanting closed space and privacy, than with general restaurant trade.
In contrast with a place like 231 Ellsworth where many unique memorable gastronomic dinners have been run, like one with Clive Coates last decade; and a few years later, one that I set up for $85 p/p budget. Prices will have risen, but I still find the OP's budget not far from reasonable. (Around 100 p/p is a "sweet spot" for custom fine-dining banquet trade because organizations start balking at spending much more. If the OP had said price is no object, I'd have different suggestions while if the plan were to have a rubber-chicken, hotel-buffet seminar meal, hundreds of venues offer those, with the same Sysco catalog steam-table entrees and instant pilaf mix. I have booked my share of those too.)
Speaking of venture capitalists, the Village Pub in Woodside, where they all live, also does the same kinds of unique gastronomic PDR dinners at similar prices to those I suggested, though I omitted it before because the location may be farther afield.
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