More than 55 new and returning artists are set to showcase their fine handmade arts and crafts, including woodwork, jewelry, glasswork, ceramics, decorations, knitwear, fiber arts, plants and much more at Mill Valley Recreation's free Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Mill Valley Community Center.

The free event, sponsored by Mill Valley Recreation and the Mill Valley Seniors’ Club, also features baked goodies and food by the Mill Valley Seniors’ Club – and plenty of free parking. Community Center, 180 Camino Alto. 10am-4pm. Free. MORE INFO.

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​Nearly one year ago, Chris and Lindsey Wanner opened the second Bay Area location of their West Coast Wine • Cheese shop, nestling into the 700-square-foot space at 31 Sunnyside Ave. that was the former home of the Weathered Nest vintage home accessories space adjacent to Kitchen Sunnyside restaurant in downtown Mill Valley.

As the moniker suggests, the Wanners leave no doubt about the wines they spotlight. “I’m kind of a homer, for sure – it’s all about California, Oregon and Washington,” Chris Wanner says of their Pinot Noir-heavy bottle list of approximately 330 wines. “That’s where my expertise lies, and I really love repping these brands and telling the stories of these winemakers and vineyard owners. And I see us as not being just a place that sells wine, but a space that builds community around our wine and around those stories."

Since their opening, the couple have hosted dozens of tastings and winemaker events, always with the same goal: highlight great wine and winemakers and build community. They'll continue to do just that as they host a One-Year Anniversary Celebration for West Coast Wine • Cheese in Mill Valley on Wednesday, Dec. 4 in their space.

To toast the occasion, the Wanners are inviting back Mill Valley native and acclaimed winemaker of Cobb Wines Ross Cobb, who has long been a household name in the Sonoma County wine landscape, heralded as a talented, “inspired producer of new world Pinot Noir” whose “wines are truly ones to watch for as they show serious terroir with amazing viscosity and range.”

Cobb, who was the wine bar's special guest at the official after-party for the 38th Annual Wine, Beer & Gourmet Food Tasting, "will be in the house to help us close out our first year in style!" says Wanner.

The 411: On Wednesday, Dec. 4, West Coast Wine • Cheese shop celebrates the First Anniversary of the opening of its space at 31 Sunnyside Ave. in downtown Mill Valley. MORE INFO.

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On the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 30, just after the power came back on after a multi-day PG&E outage, the anxiety of the previous days had clearly given way to communal excitement. The restaurants that were able to open quickly were packed, and the vibe in those dining rooms away from home were buzzing.

One of them was Piazza D'Angelo, which had made nimble efforts to avoid massive food spoilage and welcomed patrons for dinner. You could feel the joy in the air. 

Barely a week later, co-owners Luigi Petrone and Felicia Ferguson are heading Into what they call their "favorite time of the year": Truffle Week. From November 8-17, the restaurant is serving up dinner specials highlighting fresh black and white truffles from Alba, Italy.

"We will be serving crowd favorites and a few new items as well, all available with optional shavings of tartufi," Petrona says. "We will also have delicious wine pairings such as Nebbiolo and Barbaresco that we have been saving for just this occasion."

The 411: Truffle Week at Piazza D'Angelo runs Nov. 8-17. MORE INFO. 

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The Mountain Play and Ross Valley Players, two of the most acclaimed theatrical organizations in Marin, are teaming up for the holiday season on a co-production of She Loves Me. The play is based on Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklós László and has been adapted multiple times over the years, from the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner to the 1998 film You've Got Mail featuring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

The plot of the play, which runs Nov. 13-Dec. 22 at The Barn at Ross Valley Players, revolves around Budapest shop employees Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash who, despite being consistently at odds with each other at work, are unaware that each is the other's secret pen pal met through lonely-hearts ads. She Loves Me is directed by Nicole Helfer with musical direction by Justin Pyne. 

The co-production between two of the oldest Marin County community theater companies is the first full production collaboration between these two companies since the 1930s. In 1935, Ross Valley Players brought their production of The World We Live In to the mountain as that season’s Mountain Play production. In fall 2018, the two companies collaborated on the musical reading of a new work Swiss Family Robinson. 

"The long friendship of these companies has continued behind the scenes, but in November 2019, it steps center stage with She Loves Me," says Mountain Play Executive Director Eileen Grady.

The production stars Marah Sotelo (Amalia), Max Kligman (Georg), Chelsey Ristaino (Ilona), Anthony Maglio (Kodaly), Ralph Kalbus (Maraczek), Patrick Barr (Sipos), Alex Cook (Arpad), Michael Walraven (Keller), and Alex Munoz (Busboy). The ensemble includes Mackenzie Cahill, Dana Cherry and Sophie de Morelos.

The 411: The Mountain Play and Ross Valley Players are teaming up for the holiday season on a co-production of She Loves Me. The play runs Nov. 13-Dec. 22 at The Barn at Ross Valley Players in Ross. General admission tix $40 ($25 for Nov. 13 preview) and  $25 for youth 21 & under. MORE INFO & TIX.

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The Mill Valley Philharmonic is certainly not taking its 20th anniversary season lightly.

The nonprofit organization has already unveiled a dozen performances as part of its 2019-20 season, including a trio of "Epic Romance" concerts last month, as well as a free quartet of concerns at the Homestead Valley Community Center. Now MV Philharmonic, whose mission is "to enrich the cultural life of the Bay Area by offering orchestral programs to people of all ages and means in their own communities," has unveiled a special family-friendly themed program: Nutcracker & Other Holiday Favorites.

The program, designed to celebrate the holiday season, will include Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s A Carol Symphony; selections from Handel’s Messiah; and selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Maestro Dana Sadava, a San Rafael resident who was hired as the organization's new artistic director in July, will be joined by San Francisco Opera baritone Bradley Kynard, who recently performed as baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with Golden Gate Symphony and sang the role of Brooke (Little Women) with Island City Opera.

The performances include a free open dress rehearsal on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 7pm at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, as well as on Friday, Dec. 13 at 7:30pm at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church and Saturday, Dec. 14 at 2pm at First Presbyterian Church in San Rafael.
 
The deluge of news and performances come on the heels of a span that saw founder and artistic director Laurie Cohen retire in 2018, then brought on a new executive director in Richard Aldag and turned its 2018-19 season into a competition of sorts, featuring three prominent guest conductors and choosing Sadava from that trio to be its new artistic director.

The 411: Mill Valley Philharmonic announced a special family-friendly themed program: Nutcracker & Other Holiday Favorites, with a free open dress rehearsal on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 7pm at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, as well as on Friday, Dec. 13 at 7:30pm at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church and Saturday, Dec. 14 at 2pm at First Presbyterian Church in San Rafael. MORE INFO & TIX.
 
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Event also features a live musical performance by recent Milley Award winner Lorin Rowan and longtime orchestra leader Dick Bright.

Famous4 clothing shop owner Larry "the Hat" Lautzker is launching a multi-faceted speaker series heading into the holiday season, starting with author Lori Jean Glass about the "Pivot Process," a tool for becoming a healthy adult and transitioning "from fantasy to reality, confusion to clarity, isolation to connection."

The event, "an evening of health and healing, is set for Thursday, Nov. 14 at Famous 4 at 96 Throckmorton Ave. in downtown Mill Valley. Jean's work, including her latest book, Her book, #HealthyAdult," focuses on helping people meet and overcome the challenges of becoming a healthy adult, including relationship issues, addiction, anxiety, depression, family conflict and more. 

The event also features champagne, treats and a live musical performance with 2019 Milley Award recipient Lorin Rowan and longtime orchestra leader Dick Bright.

The 411: Famous4's new speaker series launches Thursday, Nov. 14 at Famous 4 at 96 Throckmorton Ave. with author Lori Jean Glass. The event also features champagne, treats and a live musical performance with 2019 Milley Award recipient Lorin Rowan and longtime orchestra leader Dick Bright. MORE INFO.

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Wagstaff + Rogers Architects' owner Eric Rogers might be best known in town for designing gorgeous structures. But Rogers is drawing on his diehard love of motorcycles – he'll often find himself racing on the track at Sonoma Raceway on the weekends – to be one of the sponsors of a fundraising event for a pair of nonprofit organizations he supports.

The event, "Wine Country Marines and AFM Benevolent Fund Benefit Party," is set for Thursday, Nov. 7 (6-11pm) at Glass Concepts in San Rafael. Proceeds benefit AFM Benevolent Foundation, an arm of the non-profit group of sport riding enthusiasts in the North Bay Area that helps motorcyclists pay for ambulance rides and insurance deductibles, as well as the Wine Country Marines, which carries on charitable and educational opportunities associated with the the ethos and esprit de corps of the U.S. Marine Corps.

"Join us for light food/drinks, donation bar, live auction, MotoGp replay and live music by Black Cat Bone," Rogers says. "Dave Moss will also be there doing suspension set-ups from 5pm-8pm for $40 (discounted from $60)." The event's other sponsors include mxHERO, VNM Sport, CycleGear and Glass Concepts. VIP Motorcycle parking will be available. Tickets are limited.

​The 411: Wagstaff + Rogers Architects' is co-sponsoring "Wine Country Marines and AFM Benevolent Fund Benefit Party," a fundraising event for a pair of nonprofit organizations he supports, on Thursday, Nov. 7 (6-11pm) at Glass Concepts in San Rafael. MORE INFO & TIX.

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As Grilly's owner Jim Revoir saw it, the Pacific Gas & Electric power outage that hit Mill Valley starting Oct. 26 had two immediate repercussion: a huge amount of ingredients would quickly spoil at his Miller Avenue and Fairfax locations, and his teams would have no electricity to be able to open for business.

But Revoir had bigger plans on his mind.

He reached out to the Mill Valley Fire Dept. and Mill Valley Police Dept. and learned that they both had large grills for use in-house and at events like the Mill Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association's Pancake Breakfast on Memorial Day. MVPD used its pickup truck to deliver the grills to the front patio of his Grilly's on Miller, where his stalwart kitchen crew went to work. They churned out more than 800 burritos, delivering most of them to some of the more than 4,000 Kincade Fire first responders based out of the Sonoma County Sheriff's office in Santa Rosa. They also distributed another 50 burritos to fire evacuees at the Albert J. Boro Community Center on Canal Street in the Pickleweed Park section of San Rafael.

"First off, the Mill Valley fire and police departments were just great to lend us their barbecues," Revoir says. "We really wanted to do something for the firefighters and police officers who were working so incredibly hard to battle the Kincade Fire and patrol and protect the neighborhoods around it."

"Our lives are so simple compared to what their lives have been like in the middle of all of that," he adds. "It was quite an effort on their part. What we did was nothing in comparison to what they were dealing with. We were happy to do it.

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