FYI: How it works at Yoshi's, Oakland

[tanthalas]

It was all complicated to me even after I asked the people at the box office about how seating works, so hopefully here's an explanation that will be easier to follow for slowpokes like me:

- Seats are first-come, first-served if you don't have a reserved seat.

- To obtain a reserved seat, you may do one of two things:

1. Eat at the restaurant (min. $15 per person) and when you sit down at the restaurant, you present the server your tickets and they will reserve seats for you at that moment. This part was confusing for me at first because I didn't realize that the Jazz Club (where the show is) is separate from the restaurant (where people eat), which is also separate from the bar.
2. Purchase a reserved seat for $8.25.

So depending on how early they allow you to purchase a reserved seat, it seems that the best way to get the "best seats" in the house is to make the earliest possible dinner reservation (5:30? 6?), get there and get seated for dinner before everyone else does, and then request the best seat in the house from your waiter/waitress.

Of course, if purchasing a reserved seat allows you to pick a seat when you do the purchase, and if the purchasing is open before the restaurant opens for dinner... (does anyone who has tried this route know?)

[tanthalas]

Oh, and "What if you're going to both shows?"

In our own experience, we asked the House Manager before the first show started to reserve us a (better) table for the second show, and he nicely did so.