New Restaurants in San Anselmo: What's Opening This Fall

At Tasty Delicious, Bubba's original clock hangs near the kitchen and Hilda's old sign sits next to the bathroom door. A few doors down at Tụ Tập, the cocktail bar is built on the Kientz Hall base, with its salvaged church wainscoting, and the parklet awning is made from the old Kientz Hall roof.

Every restaurant that opened in San Anselmo this year moved into a space people already had memories of. In each case the building set the terms: the cost of reopening, the time it took, and which pieces of the past stayed in the room.

Hilda's becomes Tasty Delicious

Tasty Delicious opened the week of September 22 at 639 San Anselmo Ave., in the space where Hilda's Coffee Shop operated until it closed last fall. According to the Marin IJ, Hilda's had extensive deferred maintenance, and the space needed substantial work to meet current building, health and accessibility codes before anyone could cook there again. San Anselmo architect Bill O'Callaghan and the San Francisco builder Cookline handled the infrastructure.

The team includes managing partner Pat Townsley, who owns Creekside Pizza & Taproom across the street, chef and general manager Jackson Palmer, and operations manager Ryan Soifer. On the Creekside website, Townsley describes the remodel as costing $1,400 per square foot for a building of about 1,000 square feet that the team does not own. He also writes that the opening slipped for weeks while the restaurant waited on a PG&E power connection it first requested in September 2025. These are the operator's own figures, posted on his restaurant's blog. Still, they show what reviving a six-decade-old diner takes.

The finished room seats about 34 in a dining space 12 feet wide, with a forest green tile counter from San Rafael's Clé and a mural of old San Anselmo by San Rafael artist Stella Prichard. A new street-side parklet seats roughly 50. Burgers cost $10 to $14, fries start at $5, and 12-ounce shakes are $6. The soft-serve uses Jersey milk from Valley Ford Cheese & Creamery.

Upcoming dates for regulars:

• October 5: Hours expand to 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
• Late October: Hand-cut, twice-fried fries are added to the menu.
• Later this year: A coffee-shop breakfast is planned, including Hilda's pancakes.

Updates are posted at tastydeliciousca.com.

Kientz Hall becomes Tụ Tập

Tụ Tập's building carries even more history. Before Kientz Hall turned it into a Mediterranean restaurant, the building at 625 San Anselmo Ave. had been a bakery for 57 years. Kientz Hall closed in late 2024. The last bakery in the space was Royal Sweet Bakery.

The upscale Vietnamese restaurant and bar opened at the end of July. Adam Block, a hospitality consultant from Sleepy Hollow, leads the project with investor Bill Upson, a co-founder of Real Restaurants, and executive chef Justine Kelly. Kelly grew up in San Anselmo and spent 18 years working with the late Charles Phan of the Slanted Door restaurants. She told the Marin IJ that she had known since her early 20s that if she ever opened a restaurant, it would be in San Anselmo.

The large space is now divided into a series of rooms seating 114 downstairs, plus 48 on a weatherized rooftop with retractable glass panels facing Mount Tamalpais. Local designer Margaret Ruiz of Strand Design worked on the interior. She and her husband, David Ruiz, also co-own Bar Voyage in town. Kelly's opening menu featured bò lá lốt, rib-eye wrapped in betel leaf and grilled, plus a five-spice duck fried rice with aji amarillo. The restaurant is mainly walk-in, with a limited number of seats held for reservations. At opening, dinner ran 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and until 9:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Current hours are at tutapmarin.com.

Same addresses, new tenants

The pattern holds beyond the Avenue's two big openings. Here is the past year of restaurant turnover in town, organized by address:

Pretti Platters took over the freestanding one-story building near Red Hill Shopping Center. Four longtime friends who bonded over their Thai heritage nearly two decades ago run it, among them co-owner Fah Intapura. The menu goes well beyond brunch. Alongside Dutch pancakes and milk bread French toast, it offers charbroiled Monterey Bay branzino, steak frites au poivre and a 16-ounce heritage pork chop. It serves 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, with parking in the adjacent lot. Marco's Gastronomia, chef Marco Franceschini's Italian deli, opened last fall and keeps Tuesday through Saturday hours.

When the space doesn't work out

Buildings and leases can also end a restaurant. The Cafe by Ryan Scott 2 Go, chef Ryan Scott's food trailer at 1119 San Anselmo Ave., served for the last time on Sunday, June 28, after opening in July 2024. His private event venue at the same address, From, Ryan, closed too. Scott said on Instagram that he closed both because of "ongoing and unresolved issues" with the landlord, according to Yahoo Entertainment. A late-September local roundup described the site's future as undecided.

Still behind brown paper

The next round of openings follows the same pattern, and each timeline depends on how much work its building needs.

1. Maison Nico, 121 Tunstead Ave. The San Francisco pastry business is moving into the building that housed Jack's Drug Store and Jack's Medical Supplies from 1962 until 2022. On September 21, the Planning Commission approved a permit for a small retail wine display and wine club featuring organic, biodynamic and small-production wines from California and France. A spokesperson said renovations should finish in early November, but no opening date has been set. Chef Nicolas Delaroque runs the business with his wife, Andrea Delaroque, who manages operations.
2. Café Réveille, 60 Greenfield Ave. The Town approved the permit to convert the former Java Hub into a restaurant on January 22, 2026. Owner Thomas Newbury plans to run it with his brother. The most recent local update reports that demolition and framing are underway, and it does not give an opening date.
3. Woods Beer and Distillery, San Anselmo Ave. A Town permit table lists a planned retail-to-restaurant conversion for Woods at 647 San Anselmo Ave. The company's own page lists 649. The only reported opening target, January 2027, comes from an informal local post and depends on a building purchase followed by about five months of construction.

Down the Avenue, the Creek Park Plaza platform is still fenced off. In August the Town Council chose a terraced redesign with paths, shaded seating and decks. The town manager said the work could be finished by early 2028 if fundraising succeeds.

Two October dates downtown

The San Anselmo Historical Commission leads its last free walking tour of 2026 on Saturday, October 10, starting at 9 a.m. at Creek Park. The route covers the old Hub, the railroad and how businesses on San Anselmo Avenue have changed over time, which suits a year when so many storefronts have changed hands. The Goblins' BOOtacular starts at 5 p.m. on Friday, October 23, in downtown San Anselmo, a week before Halloween. The Town Council approved this year's event in July.

Bringing an older building up to current code can reshape a budget and a timeline, whether the building is a diner on the Avenue or a family home that has been in place for decades. If you're weighing what an older San Anselmo property might need before a sale, or how that work affects its value, Stephanie Sabo is glad to talk it through with you. More local context is on the San Anselmo neighborhood page, or you can reach out here. Let's Connect.