When a vital local arts organization turns 10 and the building in which it resides hits 100, there’s no shortage of reasons to celebrate. At the Throckmorton Theatre, the party’s already begun – and it’s just getting started.

“It’s really a great time to reflect on all of the uses of this building that the community has been able to participate in,” says Lucy Mercer, the founder and executive director of the Throckmorton Theatre. “This was the original vaudeville theater for town.”

With a free weekly concert series already drawing busloads of residents from the Redwoods – and a free new "Fun with Dick and Bob" talk show series hosted by Dick Bright and Bob Sarlatte garnering loads of laughs on Saturday mornings – the Throckmorton Theatre has already begun celebrating its pair of anniversaries with events designed to show off the eclectic variety of programmed that has occurred there since Mercer officially opened in 2004.

Now the organization is prepping a birthday bash, celebrating its 10-year anniversary as well as the centennial of the building at 142 Throckmorton Ave. in which it lives, all to benefit the theater’s ongoing programs. Co-hosted by Marin music legend Narada Michael Walden and local comedy king Mark Pitta, the March 29 event will feature “unforgettable entertainment, a chance to bid on some unique auction items, cocktails, wine and dessert,” with revelers invited start the night with a $60 dinner at “anniversary partner restaurants” (and Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce members) Beerworks, Bungalow 44, La Ginestra, Piazza D’Angelo or Vasco or go straight to the $150 show at 7:30 p.m.

When Mercer bought the building at 142 Throckmorton Ave. in the early 2000s, she knew she was purchasing a space with a colorful history that was deeply rooted in the history of the cultural arts in Mill Valley.

Under the moniker the Hub, the venue featured Charlie Chaplin movies and live vaudeville acts. Mercer says she dug through old microfiche to determine the opening timeline, with vaudeville programming beginning in 1914 and expanded programming in 1915. In the 1920s, the buzz around the opening of the Sequoia Theatre downtown shifted attention over there, forcing the Hub to shut down.

Over the years that followed, the space had a number of uses, including as a bowling alley and a rollerskating rink, until the Oddfellows bought it in the 1970s, turning into a private venue for a variety of meetings and events. Those events included the “Saturday Nite Movies,” the precursor to the Mill Valley Film Festival. The building was little used and had fallen into disrepair when Mercer bought it and eventually launched a nonprofit organization to help sustain it as one of Mill Valley’s inimitable arts organizations.

In 2009 when Mercer, seeing her own personal savings dwindle as she invested everything in the theater, had to reach out to donors to keep it alive. With fundraising events like the Anniversary Bash, she seeks to raise around $500,000 a year in donations, which accounts for about one-third of the venue’s annual budget (the other two-thirds come from ticket sales).

“The community’s response was, ‘Yes those programs are valuable and yes we want to help support them and they rallied around us,” Mercer says. “Once the community was better informed, we have been successfully building strength and planning a broad future.

Mercer promises all sorts of anniversary celebrations and events this year, including something to mark the 10-year anniversary of another local institution, Mark Pitta & Friends Tuesday Night Comedy.

“It’s going to be a great year,” she says.

The 411: The Throckmorton Theatre Anniversary Bash is March 29 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for more info or to buy tickets.

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As he eyes his next move, former Beerworks chef says attendees of March 13 event can expect an interactive, supperclub-style atmosphere, food-centric stories and great music, all to benefit the Conscious Kitchen in Marin City.

When he arrived in Mill Valley to help Justin and Tyler Catalana launch the new kitchen at Mill Valley Beerworks, launching a vegetable-driven cuisine that garnered a glowing three stars from San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer, chef David Wilcox says Mill Valley residents greeted him with open arms. 

Wilcox has left Beerworks and is transitioning to a new venture – a pop-up oriented project to benefit food-focused nonprofit organizations that he’s mostly keeping quiet about for now. Before he makes that leap, Wilcox says he wants to express his gratitude for the local support the best way he knows how: by hosting a big, supperclub-style culinary bonanza.

The MVDW Pop-Up Dinner is a March 13 event at the Sweetwater Music Hall, “an evening of gratitude and gustatory celebrations to be shared with any and all who have supported David Wilcox in his culinary endeavors thus far – a moment to share stories and what the future holds.”

“This is basically a big thank you note for Mill Valley,” Wilcox says.

The multi-course, family-style menu will be comprised of an abundance of spring vegetables, seafood and local meat, all prepared thoughtfully paying homage to old favorites and new inspirations, Wilcox says.

“I love having big supper club events, and I’ve done some of those before in places like Los Angeles, Hawaii, Michigan. It gives me a chance to get out and interact with people more directly, tell stories about the food and not be chained to a stove. I’m really excited about it.”

The dinner will be followed by music from gypsy jazz sextet Gaucho and the Quiet Men, and Wilcox says some people who do swing dancing to Gaucho’s music will be on hand to take the event “over the top.”

The proceeds of the event will go to the Conscious Kitchen in Marin City, a program launched by Teens Turning Green that is “dedicated to a systemic transformation of school food programs, to the health and well being of our children, and to a thriving future for our planet.”

Wilcox says associating himself with organizations like Conscious Kitchen is “mandatory” for his next project.

“They are working with kids who don’t have the privilege or access to learn about these things,” he says. “A big part of what I want to do is to inspire people to get more involved in these types of programs – go out have a good time, eat great food and become more aware of projects like this.”

Though details will be unveiled in the coming weeks, Wilcox’s upcoming pop-up events will be in San Francisco, elsewhere in the Bay Area and down in LA.

“There’s a lot of potential to rethink the way we approach the food business and our interaction with people in the community,” Wilcox says. “It’s about really putting your money where your mouth is and take steps to change the system.”

Wilcox, who calls his departure from Beerworks “amicable, with no hard feelings or anything,” will continue to live in his cabin in Mill Valley for now. “Mill Valley’s been really good to me,” he says.

The 411: The MVDW Pop-Up Dinner is at 6 p.m. on March 13 at the Sweetwater Music Hall. Click here for more info and to buy tickets for either the entire event ($87) or just the concert ($10).

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From the Mill Valley Fire Department:

Mill Valley will receive two strong storms in the next few days that will bring high winds with moderate to heavy rains at times.  For the first storm on Wednesday, estimates are that we will receive from a half inch of rain up to a few inches in the hills along with high winds.  The second storm, which should be here on Friday, has the potential to be rainier and more powerful than the first.  There is a chance we can see wind gusts as high as 50 mph.  Tides will be on the higher end starting Wednesday. 

Is your business prepared? We encourage all business owners to start planning now:

1. Review Emergency Communications with Staff: Set up a telephone calling tree or email alert to communicate with employees, designate an out-of-town phone number for employees to call, give employees wallet-cards with important phone numbers.

2. Gather Emergency Supplies: Have First Aid supplies,  water, food, flashlights, a battery operated radio , extra batteries, first aid kit, and other supplies essential in an emergency on-hand. Encourage employees to pack a personal "Go Bag" with emergency items such as a change of clothes and medications.

3. Stock up on Sandbags: We urge residents to initiate their winter preparedness measures early in the season by seeking sand and sandbags should they need them. Sand and bags can be purchased at local hardware stores. Residents or business owners may also pick up sand bags at the Fire Stations at 1 Hamilton Ave. and 26 Corte Madera Ave. There is a limit of ten sandbags per household or business. Sand is available during the rainy season to City residents and businesses at the following locations:

• Hauke Park parking lot
  
• Thalia parking lot at Boyle Park
  
• Parking area on Molino Ave., behind Old Mill Park (approx 100' yds east of Molino/Cascade Way)

4. Prepare for Power Outages: Have battery-operated radios with fresh batteries ready for updates on storm conditions and power outages. Have battery-operated flashlights with extra batteries on hand. PG&E recommends that customers do not use candles because of the risk of fire. If you must use candles, extreme caution is urged. Do not use candles near drapes or under lampshades. If you have a stand-by generator, inform PG&E and make sure that it's installed safely. If it's not, you risk damaging your property and endangering PG&E line workers who may be working on power lines some distance from your home. Information on the safe installation of generators can be found on the PG&E website at www.pge.com/generator.  If your power goes out, unplug or turn off all electric appliances, including computers and printers. Otherwise, when power is restored, several appliances may come back on at once and overload your circuits or hot appliances may come on while you're away or asleep and pose a fire hazard. Leave a single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your appliances back on one at a time when conditions return to normal.

5. Drive with Caution: When driving in the rain, use extra caution and always have your headlights on. Remember, if you turn on your windshield wipers, turn on your headlights. Please obey the speed limits and follow other traffic at a safe distance.

If you have questions or comments please call Department of Public Works at 388-4033 or the Fire Department at 389-4130. Click here for more information: http://www.cityofmillvalley.org/Index.aspx?page=1436

In mid-2012, the then-120-year-old Mill Valley Lumber Yard was on the ropes, its owners putting the property up for sale and sending the rumor mill into a frenzy about what would become of it.

Barely 18 months later, the historic property is the subject of a gleaming building restoration project and the home of a trio of unique businesses, two of which have been in Mill Valley in various forms for more than a decade.

Just two months after Restoration Hardware founder Stephen Gordon opened his Guideboat shop at the lumber yard, hosting a Chamber ribbon-cutting and a star-studded Mill Valley Film Festival party in the process, Gordon’s Guideboat got a pair of neighbors who are well known throughout the 94941.

Both Mollie de Vries’ Ambatalia, a designer and maker of "modern ecological textiles to support a non-disposable life," and Gayle Nicoletti’s Bloomingayles floral design shop opened in late 2013. Adjacent to one another in a converted shipping container at the Lumber Yard at 129 Miller Ave., each shop exudes the creativity, passion and charm of its creator. 

Lumber Yard owners Matt and Jan Mathews are in the early stages of working with City Hall on a planned use development plan that would allow them to add more types of businesses to the property as more buildings are retrofitted and refurbished. As they continue to do so, they say they’re excited at the trio of businesses they already have.

“We’re just thrilled to have Guideboat, Ambatalia and Bloomingayles,” Jan Mathews says.

Here’s a look at the respective journeys of de Vries and Nicoletti, both new Mill Valley Chamber members, to one of Mill Valley’s most famous properties:

Gayle Nicoletti and Bloomingayles

Intrepid travel drew Nicoletti to both Mill Valley and her love of floral design. The New York native traveled to the Bay Area with a girlfriend when she was 17 years old, falling in love with the Northern California coast and moving to the Bay Area six years later. She’s lived in the area for 35 years, starting in places like Los Gatos and Saratoga before a 12-year stint in San Francisco. Nicoletti lives in Homestead Valley with her husband Clark Chelsey, who owns an eponymous painting company, and son Julian, a sophomore at Tam High.

Nicoletti travelled to Europe about 20 years ago and was inspired by the flower shops in cities like Paris and Amsterdam, infusing her with a passion for the creativity of floral design. She made the leap and opened her own shop in the Alto Plaza shopping center, making a very similar arc to de Vries in developing a robust list of clients and becoming less dependent on having a retail shop. She closed the shop a few years later, working out of her Tam Valley studio.

The crash of the economy in 2008 spurred a change in the floral industry towards ecology and sustainability, a move that Nicoletti spotted early. With times tighter, people wanted floral designs that would last longer, so Nicoletti began incorporating less perishable features like succulents, orchids and air plants into her designs. The shift connected with Bloomingayles tagline of “inspired botanicals.”

“I’ve developed some designs that are made with natural elements, features that are dry and permanent but don’t look like a big fake artificial thing,” she says.

Nicoletti says she loves creating custom designs for clients, often taking someone’s not fully formed inspiration and turning it into something real. Her work has served as the visual backdrop for weddings and major events at venues like Ralston White Retreat, the Outdoor Art Club and the Cavallo Point Lodge.

When Nicoletti learned about the space at the Lumber Yard, she realized that it was the right time to come full circle.

“I missed my contact with my clients and people,” she says. “I couldn’t really display my ideas because nobody was walking past my home or studio and looking at them. I wanted a space where I could be here and show off my ideas.”

Nicoletti also wants to pass her love and talent for floral design onto others, and hopes to begin hosting a series of workshops at her new space later this year.

“I’ve loved being a part of this – it really is like a family here,” Nicoletti says.

The 411: Bloomingayles is at 129 Miller Ave., Suite B. Click here for more info.

Molly de Vries and Ambatalia

It all started with a 40th birthday party.

Mill Valley native De Vries, who grew up in an old hiking lodge in town, had been a hairdresser here for 20 years. She had a great reputation and owned her own hair salon at 13 Bernard. But after having her three children, de Vries began to re-evaluate her career choice.

“I always knew that hairdressing just kind of happened to me in high school and I wanted to do something that I really cared about,” she says. “I knew that hair wasn’t my passion, it was just my work, and it was more, for me, about the people.”

As de Vries planned her 40th birthday party, she dedicated herself to identifying a new passion. But it was the party itself, at which she sang in front of family and friends a selection of sentimental songs that her late father loved like “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “Those Were the Days,” that convinced de Vries that she could do whatever she wanted.

She’d always considered herself an environmentalist, and found herself drawn to "modern ecological textiles to support a non-disposable life." She opened her shop in the El Paseo alley in 2004, building a unique business that presaged the current ubiquity of reusable bags and products and local municipalities like Mill Valley banning the distribution of plastic bags.

Four years later, de Vries closed the shop, convinced that because of the novelty of the types of products she was making and selling, she should’ve opened it in a larger city to build the business. She also was less dependent on having a physical location, having gotten her products into the inventory of the likes of Williams-Sonoma and Heidi Swanson’s Quitokeeto.com. She continued to make her wares in a shared greenhouse space in Tam Valley.

The closure of Ambatalia’s retail shop coincided with the opening of the Tyler Florence Shop down the street, and Florence reached out to de Vries to have her create some textiles for his shops.

“He felt that I had a creative eye and he liked my philosophy, and he really helped me develop what my niche was,” de Vries says. “It was a slow grow – these aren’t your standard products. It’s not a standard kitchen towel, for instance, as it's also for carrying food without packaging.”

Fast-forward five years, and Gordon, whose daughter Megan sells her Marge’s Granola at the farmers market at Marin Country Mart and often was located near Ambatalia’s booth there, reached out to her about the Lumber Yard. De Vries wasn’t looking for a retail location, but jumped at what she saw as a very unique opportunity to be part of something special.

“They wanted me to be there, and it was special enough because of the owners – they’re just great people,” she says.

Excited to have her own showroom again, de Vries is using the occasion to sell products from like-minded companies at her shop, from locally made jam and pure beeswax candles to laundry drying racks and handmade ceramics.

“I want to feature the lifestyle by bringing in other goods that complement my products,” she says.

The 411: Ambatalia is at 129 Miller Ave., Suite A. Click here for more info.

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With one of Mill Valley’s crown jewels in need of restoration, community leaders, elected officials and residents of The Redwoods broke ground this week on a $32.8 million project to restore and modernize the 40-year old-campus.

“This is more than just a campus upgrade,” The Redwoods CEO Barbara Solomon said. “Seniors and their families want the best possible retirement experience. Revitalization is about better meeting the needs of today’s seniors – who are active, vital and engaged. It is also about creating a community that will be attractive to future generations of seniors– including Baby Boomers.”

The initial phase of the project, which is slated for completion in spring 2016, will include the following:

• Modernized and rehabilitated independent living units
• Improved dining room, commercial kitchen and expanded dining options
• A new center that will focus on fitness, wellness and health education
• A new café that will provide an additional social and dining environment
• New entry and parking, with safe pedestrian access
• Sustainable campus grounds and systems - solar energy, native plants and more 

Redwoods’ officials expect the kitchen remodel to be finished by September and the dining room by the end of 2014. A new entryway and lobby will scheduled to be done by June 2015. Renovations of the independent living apartment renovations are expected to be completed by January 2015. A second phase, slated to begin in 2016 pending the city of Mill Valley approvals and outside funding, will include construction of additional affordable living units.

Solomon said that residents of the Redwoods were involved in the planning process, spurring the inclusion of things like the new café, the new center and the layout of the living units. The driving focus was on maintaining the community’s innovative environment and its focus on “the physical, emotional and spiritual well being of its residents,” she said.

“With the projected increase in older adults and the limited availability of affordable rental senior housing in Marin, the need for communities like The Redwoods is more important than ever,” said Joanne Spotswood, a member of the Redwoods board of directors and co-chair of the Revitalization Capital Campaign.

The Redwoods is paying for the project via $28.2 million in government bonds, $2 million in Redwoods reserves and a $2.6 million capital campaign. The organization will launch the community phase of its fundraising campaign this summer. They hope to raise just under $1 million in that campaign.

The 411: Founded in 1972 by the Community Church of Mill Valley, The Redwoods provides multi-level, affordable rental housing, services and care to 340 low- and moderate income seniors from across the Bay Area and beyond. Click here for more information about the Revitalization Project.

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Ever since Small Shed Flatbreads closed in November, Mill Valley has been buzzing about Molina, the restaurant being created by star local chef Todd Shoberg in Small Shed’s old space.

More details emerged this week, as Shoberg, a former sous chef atTown Hall in San Francisco and recently the executive chef at Piatti Mill Valley, tabbed Feb. 24 as the likely opening date for the 55-seat, dinner-only restaurant at 17 Madrona Street.

Noting that Molina is a Spanish/Italian surname that refers to a person who lives, works or manages the mill, Shoberg said the emphasis will be on “local, farm-driven and wood-fired coastal California cuisine,” with a daily-rotating menu leaning on the historic Alan Scott brick oven that was the foundation for Small Shed. As Scott believed his ovens brought communities together, Shoberg hopes to do the same.

“Molina is the community: it’s you and it’s me,” Shoberg said. “We live and work and manage the mill, as it is our own. Molina is as comfortable as having dinner in my home, or in your home, therefore it becomes our home.” 

“I have always dreamed of having my own small restaurant where I was capable of authentically driving the entire culture of the restaurant, where I could touch every plate, make new friends and entertain existing ones,” Shoberg added.

Shoberg’s partner in the endeavor is Small Shed owner Ged Robertson, who also owns Shoreline Coffee Shop in Tam Junction and is a partner in the Sweetwater Music Hall & Café.

“It’s been a very fun opportunity to watch Todd create this restaurant and be able to support him wherever I can,” Robertson said.

Since July, Shoberg has surrounded himself with some of the biggest names in the Bay Area restaurant scene for the project, including designer Doug Washington (Town Hall, Salt House, Anchor & Hope) and graphic designer Robert Van Horne (Frances, Delfina, Tosca). Wine curator Jason Ruppert has helped cull together a wine list that highlights “family-owned wines of small production, operated using sustainable viticultural methods,” said Shoberg, whose “truly chef-driven experience” will even include the music playing on the turntable each night.

The 411: Click here for more info on Molina and stay tuned for more details.

Enjoy Mill Valley Blog is sponsored by the following local businesses: