Payment accepted by credit card only.
The Vista Room will re-open on September 12, 2024.
The Vista Room is a fully functional restaurant and teaching and learning laboratory that provides safe and realistic food-service work experience for students.
Managed by the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management in the Lam Family College of Business, The Vista Room is open to the public for lunch and as a special-occasion venue during the academic year.
We serve contemporary California cuisine with a focus on responsibly-sourced ingredients and a sustainability ethos. Restaurant Manager Ryan Smith leads the service vision and execution of hospitality in the dining room. Chef Instructor Tim Shaw leads the culinary vision, food preparation and culinary instruction.
Lunch is offered à la carte, or as a three-course $21.00+tax pre-fixe meal, which includes non-alcoholic beverages. We encourage you to make a reservation to guarantee seating, though a limited number of walk-in seats are available. The dining room opens at 11:45 a.m. and seats until 12:30 p.m. The Vista Room closes at 1:50 p.m.
We hope you enjoy your visit with us!
Our Constituents
The Vista Room has a firm commitment to serve its stakeholders:
- For our students, The Vista Room is a comprehensive facility and environment in which to gain practical application of traditional classroom learning, and hands-on experience with food service, hospitality and service management.
- For our guests, The Vista Room is a convenient and consistently delicious way to support our students, and to actively contribute in their experiential learning.
- For our community, The Vista Room strives to be an active advocate for sustainable, responsible and equitable food production and education.
Our Instructors
Tim Shaw, M.P.A., M.A., Chef Instructor
Tim has a deep professional and culinary background that stems over 20 years. Tim’s culinary work includes catering, private chef services, and extensive teaching. His research operational focus is on promoting sustainability in food systems and nutrition. Tim has been a speaker at SXSWEco on the issues of teaching about food systems, and is a judge for the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge which focuses on critical sustainability issues in food systems. To stay connected with the culinary and broader community, Tim engages with several catering companies in New York and San Francisco, and freelance writes for cookbooks and several magazines. He has donated dinners to City Year San Jose and was involved in fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, where he was a candidate for the 2014 Man of the Year.
Chef Tim received his BA in classics and archeology from Williams College; an AOS from The French Culinary Institute; MA in food studies from New York University; and a Master of Public Administration in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Graduate School.
Colin Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Hospitality, Tourism, & Event Management, and Vista Room Faculty Coordinator
Colin Johnson, Ph.D., has worked in many sectors of the hospitality industry, including contract catering, airline catering, two, four and five star hotels, private members clubs, retail restaurants and was assistant catering manager at Manchester United Football Club.
He has held faculty and management positions in seven colleges and Universities in the UK, Switzerland and the US. Colin was the dean at the Domino Carlton Tivoli Hotel Management School in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was also dean and then founding director of research at the Lausanne Institute for Hospitality Research at the ecole hoteliere de Lausanne.
Prior to joining San Francisco State University, Colin served as professor and department chair at San Jose State University. He has published in a number of leading hospitality and tourism journals, including The Annals of Tourism Research, The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Quarterly, and The International Journal of Hospitality Management and Managing Service Quality. He is on three editorial boards.
Colin Johnson holds a doctorate in economic and social sciences from Fribourg University, Switzerland. He also has an M.B.A. from Manchester Business School and a B.A. from the Open University in the UK.
Our Donors and Supporters
We extend our deepest gratitude to the continued support to help make The Vista Room a better training facility for the Hospitality and Tourism Department.
- Yelp, Mr. Brian Pribyl, for their generous support of the online reservation system.
Press & Stories
Find out more about us through articles and media. If you are Press, and are interested in a story or visiting, please reach out to us!
- Morales, S. (March 11, 2023). "The Vista Room gives education to students while others receive lunch." Goldengate Express. Retrieve from https://goldengatexpress.org/101927/campus-original/the-vista-room-gives-education-to-students-while-others-receive-lunch/.
- Huang, J. (May 18, 2016). "San Francisco State University - Vista Room," [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/M3QDNP-8Z5w.