High-end kitchen system maker Henrybuilt on Miller Avenue will serve as the launchpad for American Institute of Architects San Francisco's June 17th guided "Made in Marin: Reed House + Mill Valley Design District" tour of an innovative Homestead home that features a groundbreaking prefabricated bamboo panel structural wall system that eliminates traditional wood framing. Henrybuilt, right in the heart of Miller Avenue, serves as the tour hub, where attendees can pick up tickets, socialize, and hear a quick teaser about the featured home.

The home, owned by former Pulitzer Prize-nominated war correspondent and 2016 Milley Award winner Jacques Leslie and his wife Leslie, features a design from 361 Architecture that complemented their environmental ethic but also their need for a healthy home. With the help of Roth LaMotte Landscape Architecture, Spellbound Construction and energy consultant Beyond Efficiency, 361's Daniel Weaver created "a highly sustainable, super energy efficient and healthy home with net zero energy goals," according to the tour description. "The project concept focused on wrapping the buildings and gardens around the central patio and pool, with views from each room. 

In an interesting twist, the tour also incorporates the array of businesses within the Mill Valley Design District, a group of innovative, design-focused businesses on and around Miller Avenue that includes Henrybuilt, Revelation, Poet and/the Bench, Kress Jack at Home, Bloomingayles, Guideboat, Chambers + Chambers Architects and 7 on Locust. Those businesses will be having some surprise promotions for tour attendees.
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The 411: The American Institute of Architects San Francisco's "Made in Marin: Reed House + Mill Valley Design District" tours begin at Henrybuilt and run from 11am-3pm on June 17 . Henrybuilt is at 356 Miller Avenue. Tix are $20 for AIASF members and $30 for general admission. MORE INFO & TIX.

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Since the Miller Avenue Streetscape Project began in June 2016, the Mill Valley Chamber has worked extremely hard on its MillerUP campaign to support its Miller Ave.-area members, giving them a variety of marketing and promotional support, working with the City to directly handle their concerns as they arise more visibility in the community and getting them as much viability in the community as possible.
To that end, the Chamber put Miller businesses front-and-center on May 29 in the Memorial Day Parade, one of Mill Valley's most well attended events. The homemade float featured the faces and logos of every Chamber member business on Miller and its side streets along the side of a flatbed truck, on which Mill Valley Music owner (and talented drummer) Gary Scheuenstuhl led a group of stalwart musicians including Cole Tate, Mikaële Dawn Tate, Neal McDonald and Brett Boyd. The band played an array of classic hits, sending the packed downtown into a frenzy as the float arrived into downtown.

MillerUP!

Here are a a few photos and videos of Mill Valley Memorial Day Weekend:

Luigi Petrone and Felicia Ferguson grew up inside the walls of Piazza D'Angelo – often quite literally.

Ferguson remembers taking naps as a young girl in the booths of the landmark local Italian restaurant in downtown Mill Valley, while Petrone vividly recalls his dad sitting he and his brother down at a dining table with a big stack of napkins and "we would fold like 100 of them for ice cream money," he says with a laugh.

Petrone and Ferguson are the children of Paolo Petrone and Domenico Petrone, respectively, the brothers who opened Piazza D'Angelo in 1981, drawing inspiration from their hometown of Decollatura in Calabria, the “toe” of the Italian peninsula. The Petrones built Piazza D'Angelo's in a local institution, pairing with nearby La Ginestra to make Mill Valley a destination that could boast some of the best Italian food in the North Bay.

Over the past three decades, the Petrones have expanded their business to include an array of hotels and restaurants, including the Acqua Hotel and the Mill Valley Inn here in Mill Valley, as well as the Waters Edge Hotel in Tiburon. Their Piazza Hospitality firm built the Hotel Healdsburg and Pizzando restaurant in Healdsburg, and developed and debuted the h2hotel and Spoonbar restaurant, also in Healdsburg.

While they were doing all that, their children taking their respective paths into the business world. Petrone, who began working at Piazza D'Angelo at the age of 15, got his degree in hospitality management form San Francisco State University and worked with his father in hotel development afterward. He returned to the restaurant in 2007 as an assistant manager, working with his uncle and longtime GM Natale Cardamone.

​Meanwhile, Ferguson was taking a more circuitous route to the restaurant where he remembered having nearly every birthday or special event. She graduated from Cal-Poly in San Luis Obispo with a degree in business management, working at a number of hotels in SLO and San Francisco after graduation.

But then she took a creative detour, going back to school to get a degree in merchandise marketing. Serendipitously, she met fellow Mill Valley resident Margaret O'Leary at Piazza D'Angelo, and took her up on a job offer at the company's corporate headquarters in San Francisco. She worked in a variety of roles at the company, eventually becoming the director of retail operations. 

In August 2016, when Cardamone and Paolo Petrone got the opportunity to take over the operations at the Cooperage House restaurant in Lafayette, Luigi Petrone was left running Piazza D'Angelo solo. It was at that moment that Ferguson decided to leave the fashion world and return home. She became the co-manager in September, and the family is in the midst of transferring stock ownership to Petrone and Ferguson.

The pair are thrilled at the opportunity to continue the traditions their fathers have built, and to expand upon them. They've consulted with some interior designers on a few minor changes to the natural light-soaked dining room, they've redesigned the restaurant's website and are much more fully engaged on social media than in the past.

"Mill Valley is changing with so many new families and people coming up from the city," Ferguson says. "But we don't want to shock anyone – this place has done so well for so long for a reason. So any changes will be moderate and over time. To change all at once would be a bad idea. This will remain an upscale trattoria for simple Italian food with fresh ingredients and crafted Italian dishes that reflect our Calabrian roots and down-to-earth personality."

"We're lucky to have built such a community presence here and to have our fathers to have built such strong relationships here in town," Ferguson says. "We hope to continue to do the same for another 35 years, at least, and we've been lucky to have the support of our families as we make this transition."

​"Every time we need any advice, they're right there for us," adds Petrone. "There's 35 years of institutional knowledge to draw on."

The 411: Piazza D'Angelo is at 22 Miller Avenue. The restaurant will be serving food on the Downtown Plaza for the the the 36th Annual Mill Valley Wine, Beer and Gourmet Food Tasting on June 4. MORE INFO & RESERVATIONS.

Twelve years after it was first proposed and six years after it was approved, one of Mill Valley's largest mixed-use development projects is nearing construction.

Al Von der Werth, the longtime property owner of 500 Miller Ave. – the stretch between Reed Street and the long-vacant former KFC-Taco Bell building – is moving forward with plans for a 32,00-square-foot development project on the steep hillside. The project contains nine residential condominium units and a 4,948-square-foot commercial building that includes approximately 2,000 square feet of retail and 3,000 square feet of office space, with 23 parking spaces dedicated for these uses. The residential units are 2-3 bedroom units that range from 1,220 square feet to 1,530 square feet, each with two parking spaces (18 total for residential uses). The commercial building is located near the corner of Reed and Miller Avenue.

Von der Worth first proposed his project in June 2005, and it was the subject of more than a half-dozen study sessions and multiple hearings before the approval from both the Planning Commission and City Council. The project is complicated by the steep hillside it sits on, requiring the developer to excavate nearly 11,000 cubic feet of soil to build.

At the City Council's annual Community Meeting on May 30, Councilman John McCauley addressed the fact that the project contains no affordable units. McCauley and Planning Director Vin Smith explained that although the City has since mandated the inclusion of affordable units within multi-unit projects, state law allowed the project to be "grandfathered in" and move forward as approved. State law also kept the approval valid through extensions of subdivision maps until the Final Map (the step to create the parcels) was approved by City Council on March 6. In lieu of building any affordable units, Von der Werth elected to pay in-lieu fees totaling more than $75,000 to meet this requirement with all fees going to support Mill Valley parks and recreation.

At the time of its approval, the project sparked a lengthy debate about two large, multi-story, mixed-used buildings – the other is across the street at 505 Miller – being the gateway of Mill Valley.

Von der Werth expects the project to take 4-6 months to complete the infrastructure (site grading, retaining wall, drainage improvements and driveways), including some utility construction within the next month so that this work is completed in advance of the anticipated paving for this portion of Miller Avenue.  

​On Sunday, June 4, more than 65 premium wineries, 11 breweries, nearly 30 gourmet food purveyors and 11 local restaurants will pack onto Mill Valley's Downtown Plaza to serve up an afternoon of deliciousness to the more than 1,000 attendees of the 36th Annual Mill Valley Wine, Beer and Gourmet Food Tasting. Proceeds from the event, produced by the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, go to Kiddo!, the Mill Valley Community Schools Foundation, and the Chamber.

While sampling some of the best food, wine and beer that California has to offer, attendees will also have the opportunity to contribute to the Zero Waste efforts of Mill Valley and Marin County by making sure the trays, plates, serving containers and cups they receive throughout the day are placed into the proper bins on the plaza. In partnership with Mill Valley Refuse Service, the Chamber is posting custom signage on all waste bins and sorting directions will be given from volunteer waste monitors. All items being provided by the event vendors will be compostable.  

"We're thrilled to assist the Mill Valley Chamber and its partners with their efforts to create a Zero Waste program for this landmark local event," said Mill Valley Refuse Principal Jim Iavarone, a board member of the Mill Valley Chamber. "We encourage attendees to take a second after they finish their food or drink and make sure that the containers end up in the right bin."

"As the City strives toward our Zero Waste goals, we greatly appreciate the Mill Valley Chamber's efforts to “green” this wonderful community event." says Danielle Staude, Senior Planner and Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Mill Valley. "Having clear signage at waste stations and the use of compostable and recyclable materials at the event is a big step forward in sending as little waste into the landfill as possible." 

Sponsored by Mill Valley Market since 1981, the Wine, Beer & Gourmet Food Tasting event also features live music from the  Michael White Band as well as complimentary valet bicycle parking, provided by the Marin County Bicycle Coalition and sponsored by Tam Bikes in Mill Valley.

MORE INFO & TIX.

After a 25-year detour into architectural rendering, Debbie Patrick has returned to her first love: painting people and animals. The Sausalito-based artist is focusing on the latter for her "All Creatures" exhibit at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout June, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on June 6, 6-8pm.

Mill Valley's monthly celebration of local art features a host of venues, including the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Seager Gray Gallery, the Mill Valley Public Library, Dolls and Dandy Nail Lounge, Terrestra, the Depot Bookstore & Café, City Hall, Famous4, the Mill Valley Community Center and the Throckmorton Theatre. (GO HERE for a full list of artists and venues).

Ever since Patrick was first introduced to pastels when she was 14, she's had a passion for drawing people and animals.

"I have found myself returning over and over to the challenge of capturing a person’s mood or an animal’s particular 
personality or soulful expression," Patrick says. "I also paint in oils, but am more drawn to pasteIs, which I feel are especially suited to achieving the quality of light striking the subject or the texture of skin, fur or feathers that I am seeking."

Patrick has exhibited and won awards in juried shows across the U.S., including the Pastel Society of America National Exhibit in NYC, several Pastel Society of the West Coast USA Exhibits, the National League of American Pen Women Biennial Exhibit in Washington, DC, the Richeson Gallery and the Marin Society of Artists. 

The 411: Debbie Patrick showcases her "All Creatures: paintings ​at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout June, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on June 6, 6-8pm.

Mill Valley Philharmonic founder and artistic director Laurie Cohen revealed last month that she plans to retire in May 2018, at the end of the organization's 18th concert season. She's made clear that the award-winning, full-size symphonic orchestra of 60 musicians plans to send her off with a bang.

MVP wraps up its current season with Cohen’s presentation of the MVP Local Parks Tour – the organization's first-ever tour of Bay Area parks – with free concerts at the bandshell in Golden Gate Park, and performances on Angel Island and at Fort Mason on June 3, 4, and 11, respectively. The tour, which features the works of Copland, Price, MacDowell and Barber, begins with a free kickoff concert at the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley on May 31. 

The concert begins with Aaron Copland’s powerful and moving Fanfare for the Common Man. Following are two movements from Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3 in Cm. Hers was the first symphony by an African American female composer to be performed by a major American orchestra. The work was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Music Project during the height of the Great Depression.  
  
Written in 1892, Edward MacDowell’s Indian Suite (Suite No. 2) has themes based on Native American melodies and rhythms, notably from the Iowa Tribe and the Iroquois.  MVP plays three movements of the Indian Suite, then follows with a different American folk tune, which can be heard in Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal. Written at age twenty, the overture was Barber’s first orchestral work. It caught the ears of the music world and earned him a prestigious prize. Within it’s melodic and rhythmic complexity, there is a hidden theme to a children’s song, “I wrote a letter to my love.” Rounding out the music are three of the Dance Episodes from Rodeo by Aaron Copland.
 
Program:
Aaron Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man
Florence Price, Juba and Scherzo: Finale from Symphony No. 3 in Cm, conducted by David Gordon
Edward MacDowell, Indian Suite (Suite No. 2), Movements 1, 2 and 5
Samuel Barber, Overture from the School for Scandal
Aaron Copland, Saturday Night Waltz, Corral Nocturne and Hoedown - Dance Episodes from Rodeo

Cohen's final season with the orchestra, which run from September 2017 through May 2018, will feature Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 in November, a Valentine’s concert in February, and culminate in May with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (in collaboration with the Dominican Chorale).

The Philharmonic's board of directors has a transition plan underway to continue the orchestra’s legacy of musicianship, innovation, and community engagement, according to the MVP Board President Elizabeth Dinsel.

The 411: GO HERE for more info on the Mill Valley Philharmonic's MVP Local Parks Tour, including the free kickoff concert at the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, 410 Sycamore Ave., on May 31. GO HERE to donate to MVP's Indiegogo campaign to fund the Local Parks Tour.

A plaque honoring Lytton Barber, the first World War I casualty from Mill Valley, will be rededicated on Memorial Day, Monday, May 29 at 9:45am at the flagpole in Lytton Square, just before the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade begins. 
 
The Outdoor Art Club restored the plaque in keeping with its mission of beautifying Mill Valley. Mill Valley Mayor Jessica Sloan and OAC President Maria Hilakos Hanke will make brief remarks as the plaque is rededicated and the flag is raised. 

MORE INFO ON THE PARADE AND ALL MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVENTS.

​From the Mountain Play to the Marin Visitor Bureau and a slew of local organizations, music fans and legions of Bay Area music fans in between, it seems everyone is looking to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love this year.

A bevy of events throughout the summer hope to wax nostalgic about the landmark Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, which drew at least 36,000 people to the Mountain Play's home Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre on June 10-11, 1967. That event, which pre-dated the Monterey International Pop Festival and Woodstock, featured performances from The Doors, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Hugh Masekela, Canned Heat, Dionne Warwick, Country Joe and the Fish and many more.

But in a creative twist, on June 9 the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts' "Art Film Friday" series is serving up a prequel of sorts to that famous summer, screening Mill Valley filmmaker Eric Christensen's "Trips Festival" documentary, which chronicled the sprawling psychedelic event that took place in January 1966 in San Francisco’s Longshoreman’s Hall.  

“It was the proverbial lightning bolt that hit the primordial soup," the film's narrator, Peter Coyote, says in the documentary’s opening lines. "Just the right ingredients, just the right spark to create a new life form. This one event gave birth to a new idea, and all were invited to join. A mix of music, lights and entertainment, a happening both planned and unplanned that would evolve into the way entertainment would be presented from that time forward.”

Through a series of interviews with the likes of Bob Weir, Mountain Girl and festival mastermind Stewart Brand, Christensen’s film explains why a crazed event with 10,000 folks on LSD was able to work: it was organized and run by some very bright and innovative people. Indeed, the alumni from the Trips Festival would go on to play vital roles in communes, Sierra Club, develop the Whole Earth Catalog, create the influential online group, The Well and more. Bill Graham got some real experience and, Oh yeah, those Grateful Dead guys did okay, too.
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‘It was a breakthrough event in that it was the first time you paid as much attention to what was going on in the audience as you did on stage,” Christensen recalled. In telling the Trips story, he assembled footage and photos from the Trips Festival, the Human Be-In, the Beat scene and other historic events, including sound recordings from the Acid Tests, one of which was staged in Muir Beach.”

The 411: Art Film Friday - "Trips Festival," a documentary by Eric Christensen, screens Friday, June 9, 7pm at the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, 616 Throckmorton Ave. Tix are $10. Christensen will be on hand for a post-screening conversation. MORE INFO & TIX.

On the morning of Monday, May 29, hundreds of residents will head up to the stretch of Throckmorton Avenue on front of Old Mill School to line up for the annual Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade. When they do, they will encounter an oasis of hot coffee, donuts, cold bottles of water and soda

From 8:30-10:30a.m., volunteers from the Community Church of Mill Valley will host their fifth annual impromptu snack stand for parade participants.

"We consider it an act of mercy as well as a fundraiser!" organizers say.
 
The hardy citizens who march in the parade— representatives of civic organizations, private schools, sports teams, fitness groups, realty offices and politicos — line up early and wait for an hour or two until the parade fully assembles and actually gets rolling at 11 a.m. These folks all arrive with energy and high spirits but quickly succumb to hunger and boredom. 
 
"Having experienced this ourselves in 2012 when CCMV members participated in the parade, we decided it was our civic duty to provide sustenance to these early risers," says organizers. "Our peaceful patio is directly across from the starting point of the parade so it’s a natural spot for re-fueling. We invite folks to stop by for our hot coffee and doughnuts, cold bottles of water and soda."

MORE INFO ON THE PARADE AND ALL MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVENTS.

The Mill Valley City Council hosts its annual Community Meeting on May 30 at the Community Center (180 Camino Alto), providing residents a chance to get an update on current City initiatives and events and meet with Councilmembers and staff from each department and share questions, comments and concerns. 

"This event offers the members of our community a unique chance to speak to us directly in an open forum, with all of our departments represented in one room,” City Manager Jim McCann said. “For our staff and elected and appointed officials, it is a fantastic opportunity to hear from the community on a broad range of issues.” 

The May 30th Community Meeting will be structured similarly to those of recent years, with approximately 45 minutes dedicated to allowing residents to visit the tables hosted by each City department and ask questions, receive information and share suggestions and concerns. After that, the rest of the event is dedicated to open Q&A.

5:30-7pm: Informal discussions with council members, department heads and staff 
7-8pm: Presentations and Q&A

Though City leaders say they are open to hearing about any and all topics, the major issues of the day will surely be discussed, including the ongoing Miller Avenue Streetscape Project, the Steps, Lanes and Paths network, flooding and sea level rise, traffic congestion and the potential improvement efforts, construction activity, bicycle/pedestrian safety, heightened fire prevention measures, and much more. 

More than 150 Mill Valley residents and business owners have turned out in past years for a snapshot of dozens of the City services, programs, priorities and accomplishments, the challenges that lie ahead and to offer observations and suggestions. A video recording will be available after the meeting.

Anyone who's seen the Rock the Ages Chorus perform live already knows that they're one-of-a-kind experiences. The next edition of that experience is set for Sunday, June 11 at the venerable Sweetwater Music Hall.

For the newbies: Rock the Ages is a dynamic chorus of seniors from The Redwoods, ranging in age from 70-ish to 90-ish, that regularly dazzles with their own renditions of a repertoire that spans five decades of rock ‘n’ roll and includes songs by James Brown, the Rolling Stones, Ramones, Eurythmics, Pussy Cat Dolls (seriously), Coldplay and many more.

The 411: Rock the Ages perform at the Sweetwater Music Hall​ on Sunday, June 11 (1-2:30pm). Doors open 12pm. 19 Corte Madera Ave. Tix are $12-14. MORE INFO & TIX.

The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival committee created the Emerging Artists Scholarship Fund in 2010 and continues to offer awards every year to two seniors and two juniors who excel in the arts. The seniors are awarded $500 and the juniors are awarded $250. Unlike most scholarships that go directly to the institution, the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival awards are given directly to the student to be used for tuition and art supplies.

The seniors are awarded the money at the Seniors Award Night  and the Juniors get their checks at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival during the Saturday evening celebration for the participating artists. The festival will be September 16 and 17 from 10am to 5pm in Old Mill Park. MORE INFO.

Here are the winners:

More than two decades ago, Kenneth Andresen spent many an afternoon at the Farallon Cafe, the rustic eatery and cafe attached to the Club at Harbor Point, Strawberry waterfront hub founded by the Kaliski family in the late 1960s and home to some of the best tennis, swimming and fitness facilities in Marin.

​Andresen was in his early teens at the time, working as a dishwasher and busboy for his parents, Annette and Gerner Andresen, who ran Farallon, just a few years removed from their opening of Lighthouse Cafe, a landmark in Sausalito that remains a vital community business to this day. The family moved on from Farallon a few years later and headed up to run the Mark West restaurant in Sonoma County.

Fast forward 22 years and through many changes to the Lighthouse brand – Andresen helped his parents open Lighthouse’s San Rafael location in 2003 and moved it to Corte Madera in 2013 –  and Andresen is back at Harbor Point, shaking hands and exchanging hugs every day with many of the same Club members he knew as a kid attending Tam High.

But now, Andresen runs the Lighthouse Bar & Grill, the two-year-old restaurant, bar and event venue that has solidified its place as a community gathering spot for not only Club members but also residents of Strawberry and beyond. Lighthouse took over for the Nourish restaurant in April 2015, with Andresen serving as the general manager. The family did so knowing that running a restaurant that is open to the public but within a private club is a unique challenge.

The family decided that the most important thing to make sure they got it right was to have Andresen focus on Lighthouse’s Strawberry location almost entirely. “This is my baby,” he says. “Well, my other baby” – he and his wife have a 15-month-old daughter.

Andresen says it was important to approach things wisely right out of the gate, catering to Club members reticent of change but also making subtle changes that opened up Lighthouse to non-members who wanted to a community gathering spot. American Californian menu staples like burgers, salads and sandwiches remained, but Lighthouse signatures appeared as well. The Danish family, which moved to Marin in the early 1990s, has always sprinkled their menus with Danish favorites, and that has continued in Strawberry, with Frikadeller (Danish meatballs), the Copenhagen Burger and Smoked Norwegian Salmon BLT all getting plenty of attention.

Andresen says the gentle-yet-strategic approach has paid off. When Lighthouse opened, its customers base was approximately 90 percent members of the Club at Harbor Point. Today, it’s closer to 65 percent, Andresen says. The reputation of the other Lighthouse restaurants has helped,” he says. “But it’s primarily been word of mouth, and members telling friends and so on.”

To hear The Club at Harbor Point's Director of Operations Patrick Kaliski tell it, Andresen nailed it.

"Bringing in a new restaurant to this community with a longstanding membership base presented us with a significant challenge, but Kenneth, his family and his team have not only handled it extremely well, but they have actually helped us grow that community," Kaliski says.

With that success in mind, Andresen now is the time to deepen Lighthouse’s ties to the community. They just finished a significant expansion of the waterfront outdoor dining deck overlooking Richardson Bay, a move that makes Lighthouse a standout in Mill Valley.

​“We're thrilled with what the Lighthouse Bar & Grill has been able to do in the past two years, and the addition of the new deck will only accentuate this great local restaurant, venue and gathering spot," Kaliski adds.

Andresen has also made great strides in making Lighthouse a post-work happy hour and after-dinner destination, booking local favorites like Void Where Prohibited and Heartstrings Bridge for live music nights as well as a regular karaoke night on Fridays. Bookings for private events like weddings, anniversaries and reunions have also picked up, he says.

“This is the year,” Andresen says.

The 411: Lighthouse Bar & Grill is located within the Club at Harbor Point, 475 East Strawberry Drive. MORE INFO.