Partners Pia Newton and David Swaim opened a café/community hangout on the edge of downtown Fairfax in October. Along the back wall, a bar where guests can sip kombucha, house made green juice drink, a mushroom cacao latte, house made Radler beer or a glass of cider or wine. Once kitted, move to a comfy couch or a table to continue your IRL conversation with family or friends and consider the food on offer.
Newton’s focus on high-quality ingredients shines on the afternoon-to-evening menu. A savory or sweet gluten-free pizza – like Pepperoni with Mushrooms or Dubai Chocolate Deluxe – is a good way to start before considering a power shake, grilled open faced toasts (including The Italian and a PB&J), boards of cured meats and cheeses, and salads like Mediterranean Chickpea or Almond Parmesan Crunch.
There’s daily specials, too. Autumn Glow Pizza with goat cheese and hot honey may give way to a Caprese sandwich with basil pesto and balsamic glaze. Winter’s Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery may transition to an Urquell Pilsner. A favorite when we visited? Two Bavarian Landjäger sausages and a Pretzel Roll layered with cream cheese, chives and fennel, favorites of Newton’s childhood in southern Germany.
Plans are in the works to transition the outdoor space on the plaza with views over San Anselmo Creek into a covered patio.
When you walk into FRATM in downtown San Rafael, the first thing you notice is the gleaming floors and windows. That is, if you haven’t already taken in the hulk of a pizza oven in the prep area. Made of concrete and lava rocks and weighing in at 5 tons, it’s a Stefano Ferrara Forni, “the Ferrari of pizza ovens,” says owner Angelo Sannino of Doppio Zero fame. The Neapolitan born and raised Sannino keeps the Neapolitan-crafted oven at a cozy 800 to 850F, the better to make Neapolitan pizza with, my dear. (Pizzas requires a single minute in an oven that hot to achieve ideal puffy-crustiness.)
Of course there is pizza and Marin is lucky enough to have a dedicated white pie – Noci & Funghi, made with walnut cream, porcini and crumbled prosciutto. For those “no carb, no gluten” days, there’s an only-in-Marin braised short rib with fingerling potatoes, a few salads, plates of cured meats and cheeses, and vegetable-forward appetizers like beets with burrata and toasted hazelnuts and octopus with wild arugula.
With its grand opening in November, the third location of the Bay Area brewhouse – the first two are in Redwood City and Fremont – opened in downtown San Rafael. The team somehow fit a long bar and a few tables and chairs into the tiny nook of space. The best news? Twenty taps pour everything from Guava Hard Seltzer and Stay Zen Rice Lager to Laika Space Dog IPA and Guns of Brixton West Coast IPA. A few non-alcoholic brews, canned ciders, and wines round out the offerings.
Though chips and other salty snacks are available in-house, meal-sized food can be ordered from across-the-street neighbor, Red Rooster Brick Oven. We recommend the spaghetti & meatballs with a Kelpie Gold Lager.
An Israeli Breakfast of boureka, Israeli salad, hard-boiled egg, tahini and pickles is right at home alongside matzo ball soup on the menu at the café inside of Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael’s Santa Venetia neighborhood. Run in partnership with the JCC by Israeli- and California-raised Marinwood resident Dawn Daabul, the all-day café is open for breakfast and lunch. An espresso bar features the usual lattes and hot chocolate; a smoothie bar, popular in the summer when the pool is open, features a Green Smoothie and a Strawberry Banana Smoothie, while the food menu leans into sandwiches, soups and bagels with broad appeal.
There’s a tuna salad sandwich for your great uncle, yogurt parfait for the cousins, and Chinese Chicken Salad because – well, Marin. Daabul makes the boureka – flaky pastry stuffed with potato, spinach and cheese – in-house. Challah comes from @irisbake4u and is used on the schnitzel and fried eggplant sandwiches. Bagels for the egg bagel sandwiches are from Oakland’s Boichick. Coffee is from San Anselmo’s Equator.
The focus on supporting local and, often, Jewish businesses is intentional. The goat cheese on veggie-based The Green Goat sandwich comes from an Israeli family farm in Sebastopol. Doll’s Kitchen Bakery in Novato makes the cookies. Daabul insists on making Eli’s Israeli Salad fresh every day and makes all the tahini and hummus served at the café.
No more schlepping over the Richmond Bridge to get your hands on Kermit Lynch exclusives! After 53 years importing and selling wine in Berkeley, the retailer known for its impeccable sourcing of French and Italian wines opened a second location in December at Larkspur’s Marin Country Mart.
Situated across from Rustic Bakery, the Marin shop maintains the brand’s focus on well-priced wines as well as hard-to-get and Kermit Lynch exclusives from France and Italy. In Marin, expect a similar high-touch environment for which the Berkeley location is known. At 900 square feet, the selection will be somewhat smaller but the same intent, “to help clients dive into the endless pleasures of French and Italian wine,” will be the same as in Berkeley, promises Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant President Dixon Brooke. “We’re excited to get to know our Marin neighbors and to have a new place to connect with our North Bay clientele.” Santé!
Mill Valley Golf Course leveled up its game earlier this year when it added a food and drink truck to the paved patio in front of the remodeled pro shop. The name, a tongue-in-cheek reference to an 18th hole that does not exist (you can play two rounds of nine on this short course, though), clarifies operator John Yearout’s role from his other business, Floyd & Fred’s, which makes the key lime & habanero hot sauce used in the house Bloody Mary, in the dipping sauce for chicken tenders, and in the guac.
The most popular dish is definitely the breakfast burrito. Expected offerings, like a Bushwood Burger, Cheese Quesadilla, and a Blithedale BLT are comfortable on a menu board alongside a fried chicken sandwich, a Milano Wrap with salami and provolone, and The K Love Salad (kale and romaine with apples, pecans and balsamic dressing).
Cocktails are popular, whether après golf or just to take in the stunning scenery. Yearout pours a lot of Aperol Spritzes and Irish Hellos, a Jameson, coffee and whipped cream number that riffs on the Irish Goodbye, but there are regular runs on the John Daly, a.k.a. an Arnold Palmer with Tito’s vodka. There’s even an honorary cocktail for Mill Valley’s Niall Shiels-Donegan, who at 20, made it to the US Amateur Semifinal at SF's Olympic Club in August. If that’s too many golf names for you, may we suggest a margarita or Stinson Sunset or a craft beer?
With the music always on, the canopied patio tables are often a scene, ladies dining after a monthly golf event, families walking down the hill for a dinner of seasonal chili. “There’s a little something for everyone,” Yearout says. And soon, heat lamps!
