Frankly, host it wherever is convenient. I don’t have the convenience of a friendly neighborhood game store, so a living room table might be it. Maybe even mine. We sprang for a really big table from Ikea mid-pandemic, and still haven’t hosted a single games night.
Go for somewhere with a nice big table to roll dice on and put maps out. Miniatures are fluff, but they can help immersion, as can other props. Maps are good. Get some fancy looking cups for beverages. Get a wizards hat or maybe a fake skull, I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter as long as it pushes the immersion a bit further.
Mood lighting sounds like a good idea until you have to decipher novelty dice, tiny rule texts in fancy fonts, and whatever you call what you wrote those handwritten notes in. A nice desk lamp comes in handy for behind the screen or the center of the table.
By the way, are you sure you need a screen? I know a lot of people are totally fond of theirs, but in a lot of cases I found them more a hindrance than a boon.
A sound system also might be nice, but might be overkill for a first session. Just put some good mood music on. Don’t necessarily go for whatever. I remember some really annoying sessions with reggae background which just killed the mood. Try Led Zeppelin Iron Maiden, the Conan soundtrack, or some other nice medievalesque rock.
Also… it might help if you aren’t interrupted. Roleplaying is a silly endeavor at heart, even if you take it seriously. No, Especially if you take it seriously. Not everyone might like having people walk in and out at random while starting out.
But, on the other hand, depending on who you are playing with, it might be better to choose a more or less public space. This especially if you don’t actually know the people you are going to play with. People propose libraries all the time, but the ones I know never would be happy to have some people play a raucous game in there. Coffee shops or cafes might be better. We used to use the local community center for games, which fit because the local youth group and my player group basically formed a circle.
