The folding chair that came out for July's Smooth Jazz Fridays is going back in the garage soon. The reservation habit that came with it is a harder question. For years, "dinner at LB Steak, then walk over" was the default pre-event move at Alexander Square. That default no longer exists. The hospitality group behind LB Steak closed every one of its restaurants, including the San Ramon location, on June 23, 2026, and the fall calendar arrived seven weeks later with three ticketed events, one free parade, and a tree lighting that all sit on the same square where the steakhouse used to anchor the room.

If you live here, the question is not whether the fall lineup is good. It is where the reservation goes now.

Nine weeks, four events, one square

City Center Bishop Ranch is a 300,000-square-foot open-air complex at 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road, designed by Renzo Piano and owned by Sunset Development. Between mid-September and late November, four programmed events land on Alexander Square:

Ticket details for the September wine event and the Beer City Run are on the Bishop Ranch events calendar. The Costumed Pet Parade and the Tree Lighting are free and do not require an RSVP.

That is the resident's outline. Everything else in this post is about what has changed in the ring of restaurants around it since last November, because that ring is what turns any of these into an evening rather than an errand.

The gap LB Steak left, and who is in the room instead

LB Steak was the restaurant most San Ramon residents named when a birthday, an anniversary, or an out-of-town guest was involved. Its parent group's abrupt June 23 closure of all its locations left the corporate steakhouse slot at City Center empty going into fall.

The three operators who moved in around it in the last twelve months were not chosen to replace it. They were chosen because Sunset Development's leasing team spent most of 2025 and early 2026 courting operators known for a specific dish rather than a category. That distinction is why the pre-event map is different this year.

Meyhouse opened in early May 2026 in the 5,200-square-foot ground-floor space previously occupied by Dumpling Time. It is the third location and first East Bay outpost of co-owners Omer Artun and Koray Altinsoy's Turkish concept, and, as Diablo Magazine reported at opening, the menu is built around meze small plates and mesquite-fire seafood and meat. Signature dishes include steamed Turkmen dumplings over garlic yogurt drizzled with paprika-butter and a whole branzino sourced from the Aegean. The room was designed for acoustics and can host dinner shows for up to 80 guests. Performances so far have included Brazilian jazz-samba artist Larissa Viana and 11-time Grammy winner Tony Lindsay. This is the important part for planning fall: Meyhouse is a jazz venue inside a square that also programs jazz in the open air. When the Smooth Jazz Fridays end, Meyhouse's dinner shows continue. Discover San Ramon's summer 2026 guide has confirmed the room's role in the Square's programming.

KHAKI Indian Bar and Canteen has been on the second floor since summer 2025, in the 3,124-square-foot unit previously occupied by Curry Up Now. It is led by brothers Sujan and Pujan Sarkar, both Michelin-recognized, and the menu covers Bihar, Kerala, Lucknow, Hyderabad, and Delhi. Champaran mutton, sealed in a clay handi and slow-cooked in its own fat without added liquid, is a Bihar-specific preparation that a recent dining guide notes is unavailable at any other Bay Area restaurant. This is the room to walk into before the September wine event if the group came in from Alamo and wants a real dinner rather than a bites-only afternoon.

Rico Rico Taco opened in February 2026 in the 1,464-square-foot slot between West Elm and Fieldwork Brewing Company. The space was formerly C Casa. Rico Rico is an Oakland taqueria known for handmade tortillas and spit-roasted al pastor carved fresh from the trompo, and San Ramon is the only suburban market the operator has agreed to open in so far. That is a specific bet on who eats here on weeknights, and it is the right room for the Costumed Pet Parade on Oct. 25 when the whole afternoon is casual.

Super Duper Burgers arrived just outside the Square. As DanvilleSanRamon.com covered ahead of opening, the Tri-Valley's first Super Duper opened March 31, 2026, at 146 Sunset Drive, Unit A-3, a corner unit in the Shops at Bishop Ranch across the street from City Center. Co-CEO Edmondo Sarti told the paper that the site once housed a Pasta Pomodoro from the same parent company, Back of the House. The walk from the Shops to Alexander Square is short enough that this is the pre-Tree-Lighting option when there is a teenager voting.

Where the reservation goes now

The old logic was: reserve LB Steak, walk to the Square. The new logic depends on which event you are actually attending.

• Taste of City Center (Sept. 27, 2:00 p.m.). The event itself is Livermore wineries paired with bites from participating City Center restaurants, so lunch beforehand is the play, not dinner. Rico Rico Taco at 1:00 p.m. keeps the afternoon on-theme. If dinner follows, Meyhouse's early seating is the natural landing spot because the mesquite grill and small-plate format read as an extension of the wine walk rather than a reset.
• Beer City Run (Sept. 18–27). The multi-day format means the reservation question changes depending on which day. Fieldwork Brewing Company is the on-square anchor for anything beer-adjacent. Super Duper across the street handles the after-race hunger without needing a booking.
• Howl-O-Ween Costumed Pet Parade (Oct. 25, 2:00 p.m.). Free, in the Square, with treats from George San Ramon and a mini obstacle course and ball-pit "sniff patch" pop-up from The Hub by Pack Animals. This is a stay-outside afternoon. Rico Rico or the Farmers Market vendors carry it.
• Holiday Tree Lighting (Nov. 20, 6:00 p.m.). The Monte Vista Band and singers lead up to Santa's arrival. It is a one-hour outdoor event, so the dinner reservation is either right before at 5:00 p.m. or right after at 7:30 p.m. KHAKI is the second-floor option that keeps you close but out of the cold; Meyhouse's 7:30 p.m. seating turns the tree lighting into a prelude.

The Saturday layer most residents already have on autopilot

The San Ramon Farmers Market is in its 19th season on Alexander Square, with more than 70 local growers and artisan food producers plus food trucks, live music, and periodic cooking demonstrations. That runs Saturday mornings straight through fall and does not compete with the ticketed events, all of which land on Sundays or Friday evenings. It is worth mentioning here only because the market is the reason the Square already feels populated when you show up at 1:45 p.m. for the wine event on Sept. 27. That five-minute overlap between the market winding down and Taste of City Center starting is the busiest the plaza will feel all fall.

The one line worth writing down

The Square did not lose an anchor in June. It lost a default. The four fall events do not need one restaurant to hold the room together, because the room now has a Michelin-recognized Indian kitchen upstairs, an Oakland taqueria between the brewery and West Elm, a Turkish jazz room off the ground-floor arcade, and a burger shop across Sunset Drive. Which one you pick is the question. That the choice exists at all is the change.

If you are planning a fall Saturday around any of these events and want a second opinion on which room fits which crowd, or if you are thinking about the way this stretch of San Ramon has been shifting and what that means for the block you actually live on, Ashley Mancera is a Danville native who works these streets every week. Let's connect.