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Support Your Neighbors & Shop for the Holidays in MV!!

11/29/2019

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Take an active role in making sure that Mill Valley remains full of community vitality! Enjoy free parking from Nov. 29-Jan. 1 and do your holiday shopping in Mill Valley. #ShopMV!
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Downtown Mill Valley from above.
"Shop Local. Shop Mill Valley."

We say, write and post these words on social media all the time. 

Here in Mill Valley, those words mean resisting the urge to use your local stores to comparison shop before doing the seemingly inevitable: heading to Amazon, finding the product you spotted in your favorite local shop and buying it with one-click, knowing it'll show up at your door within two days. It's magic – a completely friction-less transaction, right?

While the purchase may seem like the pillar of tech-driven efficiency, it has its costs. Store owners in town say they see it every day: a potential customer walks in the door, finds just the product they're looking for, hovers for a bit, whips out their phone and snaps a pic of the item and its price tag. Amazon or its big box brethren, here we come.

Let's be clear: saving a few bucks is always important, but doing so runs the risk of losing some of what makes Mill Valley the truly special place we love. Local shop owners say that while the economy is doing well, competing on price with the likes of behemoth Amazon and the big box stores is nearly impossible, all while their fixed costs, particularly rent, utilities and the difficulty of hiring in a saturated employment market with skyrocketing home prices, continue to climb.

On top of that, the vast majority of businesses in Mill Valley are mom-and-pop shops. That means that the people who own it are likely your kid's baseball or soccer coach, the dad who donates burritos for the end of season party or the mom who organizes the car pool to school.

And here's one more for you: When you buy a product at a Mill Valley shop, you walk out the door with that product. Even Prime can't beat that! You also skip the massive amounts of packaging waste – seriously, does a pair of shoes for your toddler need to arrive in a box that could fit a 55-inch TV in it? – that comes with ordering products online.

This is not an admonishment. It's also not an all-or-nothing exercise. It's just a challenge. And we're here to help!

Know a local store that sells the product you want? Support them as often as possible. Not sure if anyone in Mill Valley carries the product you want? Lean on us – we can help be your Mill Valley shopping concierge! Email us at info@millvalley.org or call 415.388.9700 and we'll set you straight.

​If you need any more incentive, there's the City of Mill Valley's annual tradition of waiving metered parking for the time allowed during the holidays. From Nov. 29 to Jan. 1, skip feeding the meter for allowable time. 

And let's be clear about something: There's nothing wrong whatsoever with online shopping!! In fact, the vast majority of Mill Valley retailers have much of their inventory available for purchase through their website, either to be shipped directly to you or have you come pick it up in the shop. For instance, Terrestra, the downtown Mill Valley shop that husband-and-wife owners Ray Kristof and Amy Satran describe as a “museum store without the museum," has nearly 3000 of its items on terrestra.com, including its most popular designers, all of its dinnerware and glassware and linens and many of its one-of-a-kind handcrafted studio artworks.

LEAN ON US: EMAIL INFO@MILLVALLEY.ORG OR CALL 415.388.9700 FOR RECOMMENDATIONS, IDEAS, WHATEVER YOU NEED!

#SHOPMV!

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Bayfront-Hauke Park Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridge Set to Reopen Wed. After City Finishes Emergency Repairs

11/27/2019

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The Bayfront-Hauke Park Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridge, which was closed in early September for safety concerns.
PictureCity of Mill Valley officials celebrate the reopening of the Bayfront-Hauke Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge.
Less than three months after City of Mill Valley officials put an emergency plan in place to garner a slew of regulatory approval and race to repair the Bayfront-Hauke Park Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridge before a fast-approaching Nov. 30 deadline, they've done exactly what they said they were going to do. The bridge is set to open today at 3pm following a project that cost approximately $100,000, City officials said.

The repairs of the tiny bridge, whose understated importance came into stark contrast in early September when residents reported significant movement on the bridge, became urgently necessary when an analysis found failure of one pier and likely deterioration of other supporting piers. The closure removed a vital link between the eastern slice of the City and the rest of it, forcing throngs of commuters, from young students to those headed to the Financial District and beyond, as well as tourists heading to or from Mill Valley, to circumvent the bridge by heading on Roque Moraes Dr., a narrow roadway with few safe resources for bicyclists and pedestrians. 

The closure, and the outpouring of support for its speedy repair, appears headed for a happy ending, as the Mill Valley City Council unanimously backed a plan to declare the situation an emergency, find the necessary repairs to the bridge to be categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), authorize a budget adjustment to pay for the work and to award the necessary repair work on the failed piling and railings.

The City had some good favor in looking to fast-track the repairs. In this specific area, the time period where work is allowed to be completed by the Army Corps of Engineers is between June 15, 2019 and November 30, 2019. And the original permit issued by SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission requires the bridge be kept open to the public at all times as a public access amenity. Couple the poor conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists on Roque Moraes with PG&E's scheduled vegetation management work with nearby lane closures in the coming months, creating an even narrower pathway for bicyclists, City officials determined that it was critical to expedite this work to preclude the bridge from being closed for another year. 

The Bayfront-Hauke Park Pedestrian Bridge was designed and built by the County of Marin in the mid-1970s, and the city effectively took control of it sometime since then, according to City officials. MORE INFO.

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Black Friday's But a Passing Fancy: All EMV Store Merch  – Hats, Journals, Totes, Bottles, Prints – 20% Off 'til 12/31!!

11/27/2019

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In 2017 at the Seager Gray Gallery, the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center unveiled the then-new Mill Valley logo designed by award-winning graphic designer Michael Schwab and the array of new merchandise bearing that logo.

"The most important thing that we wanted to capture was the emotion and the pride that we feel living in this community,” Chamber Board Member Kathryn Olson says. “Every time you tell someone you live here there is so much pride, and we’re so privileged to call this place home. Michael has this unbelievable ability to capture a place, and he's really done that here."

Since that time, friends, family, neighbors and visitors who love Mill Valley have popped into our downtown Visitor Center and clicked their way to our Enjoy Mill Valley Store to buy the gorgeous felt totes, embossed journals, stainless steel water bottles, baseball caps and gorgeous prints, framed and unframed and in two sizes, all bearing the incredible logo Schwab created.

To celebrate the holidays, we're serving up a 20 percent discount through Dec. 31 on all of our merch bearing the Schwab logo, providing our community with the opportunity to spread the joy Mill Valley with their holiday gifts. That discount amounts to getting the gorgeous, framed large Mill Valley prints for $240 instead of $300, the Felt Totes for $32 instead of $40 and stainless steel water bottles for $28 instead of $35 and the unframed prints for $80 instead of $100.


​The Enjoy Mill Valley Store is all about supporting our wonderful community, so all proceeds raised go directly back into promoting our town and making it the vibrant, gorgeous place we all love. All orders must be picked up at the Visitor Center in the Downtown Plaza, Tue.-Sat., 10am-4pm. 
VISIT THE EMV STORE HERE.
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Kelly Scott's Sundry Kitchen & Garden Supply Shop in Mill Valley Serves Up a Sip + Shop Event – Dec. 16, 6-9pm

11/26/2019

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Scenes from Kelly Scott's new Sundry, a garden- and kitchen-focused retail shop at 118 Throckmorton Avenue in downtown Mill Valley.
When Kelly Scott, the former owner of the Alpha Dog shop and current owner of The Goods, opened Sundry, her new kitchen and garden supply shop in downtown Mill Valley in September, she drew an outpouring of support from friends, neighbors and fellow business owners thrilled to have a new offering downtown.

Now Scott is sharing the love, inviting the community to a Sip + Shop event featuring wine, treats and 10% off discounts on Monday, Dec. 16, 6-9pm. Sundry is located at 118 Throckmorton Ave., the former home of Branded Boutique, the Mill Valley Hat Box, a laundromat and a fledgling version of Mill Valley Market before that.

Scott's quick to note that this isn't some of run-of-the-mill kitchen and garden store. From napkins and tea towels hand-loomed by Loomination to reusable organic canvas covers from Aplat, she spent a ton of time sourcing products that are American-made, sustainable, organic and that tell a story about their creators. 

"This shop is meant for the community, to bring something back to downtown that hasn't been here in a while," she adds, noting that she hopes Sundry fills a need downtown in the wake of the closure of not-exactly-temporary closure of Tyler Florence's store in 2014 and the loss of the Capricorn Gourmet Cookware shop in the former LF space.

The 411: Sundry, Kelly Scott's kitchen and garden supply shop in downtown Mill Valley, hosts a Sip + Shop event featuring wine, bites and 10% off discounts on Monday, Dec. 16, 6-9pm. 118 Throckmorton Ave.

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Need to Spruce Up That Holiday Wish List? Stacy King's Lulu Designs Jewelry Has You Covered – Thu., Dec. 5

11/25/2019

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Stacy King in her Lulu Designs studio and gallery at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard. Courtesy image.
Earlier this year, when Stacy King opened her Lulu Designs in the historic Mill Valley Lumber Yard that Matt and Jan Mathews have transformed and revitalized, the benefits were obvious: she was able to bring her studio and gallery under one roof again, and she was surrounded by an array of creative, eclectic businesses, the right space became available.

Now King and her team head Into the holiday season with an event designed for those who need some stimulation for their gift lists, both of the giving and receiving kind. Their "Holiday Wish List" event, set for Thursday, Dec. 5 (5-8pm), will feature "appetizers and seasonal drinks while you shop and create your holiday wish list."

“The environment we’re working is just magical,” Kings adds. “Being surrounded by nature and redwood trees and having a creek running under us – the quality of life is so vastly improved.”

The 411: Lulu Designs at 129 Miller Ave., Suite 200 in the Mill Valley Lumber Yard, hosts a "Holiday Wish List" event, set for Thursday, Dec. 5 (5-8pm). HERE'S THE FULL STORY ON THE JOURNEY OF KING AND LULU DESIGNS.

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O'Hanlon Center for the Arts Marks the Solstice With an 'Embrace the Darkness: Return To Light' Sunday Salon

11/25/2019

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The O'Hanlon Center for the Arts has long had an insatiable thirst for fostering individual and communal creativity through a variety of means. They'll be doing so again on Sunday, Dec. 15 with a Sunday Salon centering around the theme of "Embrace the Darkness: Return To Light, A Solstice Celebration."

Led by O'Hanlon co-director Erma Murphy  and her Murphy Productions' partner Daniel Patrick, the Sunday Salons are a series of potluck-style meals that lead into theme-based performances featuring both veteran and novice performers, including singers, storytellers, visual artists, poets and musicians, all sharing their art, this time on the Solstice Celebration. 

Bring food and drink to share as well as your own plates, cups and utensils.

The 411: O'Hanlon Center for the Arts' Sunday Salon around the theme of "Embrace the Darkness: Return To Light, A Solstice Celebration," is set for Sunday, December 15. Potluck 5pm, Performances 6, $10. MORE INFO.

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Wish List Alert: Book Passage's Elaine Petrocelli Unveils Her Holiday List of Books at Outdoor Art Club – Dec. 5

11/25/2019

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On the hunt for that perfect gift for the book lover in your life?

​You won't do much better than a Dec. 5th event at the Outdoor Art Club, where Elaine Petrocelli, co-founder of one of Marin's premier independent book store, Book Passage in Corte Madera, will highlight new literature and suggest books for holiday gift giving. The 1pm event is free and open to the public. Petrocelli will have the books she recommends for sale at the event.  

The 411: Elaine Petrocelli, co-founder of Book Passage in Corte Madera, highlights new literature and suggests books for holiday gift giving on Thursday, December 5 at 1pm at the Outdoor Art Club, One West Blithedale, Mill Valley. Free.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

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Baffled But Behind Her Every Step of the Way, Joan of Arc's Parents Are All of Us in MTC's 'Mother of the Maid'

11/23/2019

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Scenes from the Marin Theatre Company's production of "Mother of the Maid," which runs through Dec. 15. Photos by Kevin Berne.
The story of Joan of Arc is legend: A peasant girl had visions of St. Catherine that propelled her to a leadership role in France’s battle to get out from under English rule, only to be captured, tried for heresy and burned at the stake, all before she’d even turned 20 years old.

Given its occurrence nearly 600 years ago, Joan’s arc – from peasant to war heroine in men’s clothing and ultimately religious martyr – is oft-recounted at a macro level, as told in Luc Besson’s 1994 film The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.
But what if you were Isabelle and Jacques Arc, Joan’s mom and dad and, like many parents, you just wanted your daughter to be OK in the world?

That’s the lens through which playwright Jane Anderson explores Joan of Arc in Mother of the Maid at the Marin Theatre Company through Dec. 15. It’s a gripping tale that begins in the bucolic fields of 15th century Domrémy in northeast France and ends with the horror of parents knowing that their daughter’s fate is out of their control.

“Mother of the Maid is one of those rare plays that gets to the heart of what it is to have a child and know they are extraordinary, yet struggle to understand that child," MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis, who directed MTC’s Mother of the Maid, said prior to the play’s opening on Nov. 19. "Many caregivers will be able to relate to what it means for Isabelle and Jacques Arc to have a child who they can’t quite understand, but whom they know they need to support; even when that support may put their child’s life in danger."

And in the retelling by Anderson, a part-time Marin resident and an Emmy award-winning writer and director for theatre, film and television whose credits include The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio, and HBO’s Olive Kitteridge, the story goes beyond the Arc family’s tribulations. Anderson’s portrayal on the Arc family was influenced by Anderson’s own young life as a gay girl in the Bay Area, and how difficult it was for her own mother to understand her at that time, according to MTC Artistic Producer Trevor Scott Floyd.

Mother of the Maid’s closing series of scenes marks the transition of Isabelle and Jacques Arc from parents baffled by their daughter’s choices to being awed by her storied rise. “I raised an extraordinary young woman,” Isabel Arc says.

But before long, the parents are faced with the dreadful discovery of the desperate, squalid conditions the English kept Joan in before her demise. In her final visit with Joan, a distraught Isabel says it all: “I just want to know how she was!”

The 411: Marin Theatre Company's production of Mother of the Maid opens Nov. 14, and runs through Dec. 15. 397 Miller Ave. Tix $25-$70. MORE INFO & TIX. 

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'Tis the Season: Muir Beach's Holiday Arts Fair – Dec. 7-8

11/23/2019

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A tradition at Muir Beach for more than 40 years, the Muir Beach Holiday Arts Fair returns on Dec. 7-8, just in time for those on the hunt for "hand-made, beautiful, original fine arts, crafts, and edibles to fill your stockings, put under the tree, or delight loved ones and friends with gifts for every Holiday occasion.

Originally started by the Muir Beach Quilters, the Holiday Fair continues under the stewardship of members of the community, featuring approximately 40 artists exhibiting. Situated in the hamlet of Muir Beach between Mill Valley and Stinson Beach, the fair is held in the warm, rustic Muir Beach Community Center overlooking Muir Beach and the Pacific Ocean.
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Visit the Artist Gallery to preview the work of the variety of artists and craftspeople, many of whom will be returning from last year. 

The 411: The Muir Beach Holiday Arts Fair returns on Dec. 7 (10am-5pm) & Dec. 8 (10am-4pm) at the Muir Beach Community Center, 19 Seascape Drive, Muir Beach. MORE INFO.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

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Clean MV Volunteers Tidy Up Long-Dormant Depot Building, and City Signals Renovation Could Begin Soon

11/22/2019

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Clean Mill Valley volunteers tidied up the Depot building this week. Courtesy images.
The Depot Bookstore & Cafe building in the heart of downtown Mill Valley got a double dose of good news this week, as volunteers cleared the building's windows of months-old flyers and grime, and Mill Valley City Manager Jim McCann announced that the long-delayed renovation of the building will finally move forward, with construction set to "commence in coming weeks."

The cleanup was spearheaded by Clean Mill Valley, a multi-faceted organization dedicated to the beautification of Mill Valley. In addition to cleaning the building's windows, volunteers Joan Murray, Helen Hebert, Jill Young, Trish Intemann and Jeff Conley circled the building and removed litter.

At a Mill Valley City Council meeting on Nov. 18, McCann said Depot Bookstore and Café owner Paul Lazzareschi and his team will embark on a renovation of the City-owned building at 87 Throckmorton Avenue after the Council considers revisions to the previously approved Construction Reimbursement Agreement and the Lease Extension Agreement (originally approved in April of 2018) at its Dec 2 meeting.

​"The Council is agreeable to providing a greater share of the construction costs to renovate and improve the centerpiece of the Depot Plaza, thereby enabling the Depot Bookstore and Café partnership to finalize their project financing and execute a construction contract," McCann said.“I am happy to see this progress,” Mayor Jim Wickham said. “The City has a strong interest in enhancing the Depot and to enliven the Downtown and the Plaza.”

Construction of the Depot renovations, including public restrooms, is projected to be concluded in 4-5 months.

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From Feriozzi to Hollinga to Dughi, Johanna Becker's Moonstruck Fine Jewelry Draws on a Deep Lineage

11/21/2019

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Johanna Becker’s Moonstruck Fine Jewelry on Bernard Street in downtown Mill Valley is officially just more than a year old. 

But a deeper dive into Becker’s background reveals a profound lineage in the jewelry industry that spans from Santa Cruz and the Carmel Valley to Italy and the Netherlands, as well as nearly two decades in Mill Valley.

Becker was raised in Santa Cruz and moved in with her father, a goldsmith from the Netherlands, at the age of 15 to apprentice with him for eight years, eschewing the traditional educational path. "I learned on the bench," she says.

In 2001, she took a jewelry making position at Kathleen Dughi Jewelry, the eponymous studio of the long-renowned Mill Valley jewelry maker. Becker maintained a studio workshop in Santa Cruz while doing so, making the Santa Cruz-to-Mill Valley commute a few times a week. When Dughi passed away in 2007 after battling breast cancer, Becker decided to move to San Francisco full-time to continue managing the business from nearby. Dughi’s family had placed the business in a trust for Dughi's son, and Becker continued to run the business from 2007 to 2018.

“Kathleen was such a force and her presence was so magnificent,” Becker says. “I feel so grateful that we were able to keep the business going after she left us.”

In May 2018, Becker took over the business, changing the name and formally opening as Moonstruck Fine Jewelry three months later.

“It’s been so wonderful to have this new beginning,” Becker says. “I was the constant for so many years, so in some ways much was the same, but it was great to make the space my own but also have so much continuity with the same beautiful, friendly atmosphere and lovely space. And I have been really lucky to have the clients to keep coming into the store."

“My favorite part of jewelry is the connection to people and my customers make my day and fill my cup," she adds. "And I have such a great team.”

Moonstruck boasts “a carefully curated collection of classics and fashion-forward pieces by local artists” and “a wide array of custom design and repair services.”

Becker is clearly proud of her family’s roots in jewelry-making and goldsmithing. She showcases the work of her Dutch father, Bouke Hollinga, in her studio, and points to her focus on “the art of fabrication,” fabricating the jewelry in the metal, what Becker calls “a lost art.

Becker and Hollinga drew that knowledge from the late Carmel Valley master goldsmith Orlando Feriozzi, who came to the U.S. in 1975 after 50 years in Roma, Italy, to teach jewelry makers who were hungry to learn this lost art of hand fabrication. Both Hollinga and Dughi apprenticed with Feriozzi.

“It’s essentially making jewelry like you do a house,” Becker says, “allowing for strength and beauty and light and all of those elements to impact the creation.”

That foundation has paid off, as Moonstruck garnered "best local jewelry store" in Marin Magazine's Best of 2019 issue. But Beck says all the awards in the world pale in comparison to hearing a jeweler's favorite five words: "That’s exactly what I wanted. I have been so lucky to hear those five words many times."

The 411: Johanna Becker's Moonstruck Fine Jewelry is at 11 Bernard Street In downtown Mill Valley. Moonstruck is hosting a pre-holiday “Thankful Party” at the studio on Thursday, Nov. 21, 3-8pm. See more of Moonstruck Fine Jewelry's creations on their Instagram. MORE INFO.

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Floodwater, Tam Junction's Massive New Restaurant, Bar & Gathering Place,  Is Truly a Family Affair – Opens 11/29

11/20/2019

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From left, Henry, Bill and Tyler Higgins at their new Floodwater restaurant and bar in Tam Junction.
As one of the founders of the prolific Real Restaurants, Bill Higgins has been at the helm of an alphabet's soup of acclaimed Bay Area restaurants, from Playa, Bungalow 44 and Buckeye Roadhouse in Mill Valley to ​Bar Bocce in Sausalito and Restaurant Picco in Larkspur, among many more.

But while Higgins' is three decades and change removed from his debut opening of the Fog City Diner in San Francisco, his enthusiasm level for his latest project is at a fever pitch, for reasons that go beyond the details of menu, decor and the physical space itself.

For Higgins, Floodwater, the massive, 7,200-square-foot new restaurant, bar and gathering place in the former Frantoio space in Tam Junction, is the culmination of watching his two eldest sons follow in his restaurateur footsteps, make their own respective marks in the industry and be partners in the latest family venture.

"It's just been absolutely phenomenal," Higgins says of the process of teaming up with his sons Tyler, 35, and Henry, 27, to create Floodwater, which is set for a Nov. 29 opening.

​The Idea began germinating not long after Frantoio closed and the Higgins trio started brainstorming on the possibilities of such a massive space.

​"We just thought we could create a niche here in Marin that doesn't really exist, and that's a fun, high energy, social gathering place that appeals to a lot of different kinds of people," Bill Higgins says.

"It was really the right time for us to do something like this, as Henry and I have gone off and done our own things and now have the chance to work together, and with our dad – it's just fantastic," Tyler Higgins adds. 

Henry Higgins comes to the project after a stint In Chicago, tracking a path that his father and brother, all fellow University of Colorado alums, followed before him, at Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, the Rich Melman-owned restaurant and bar juggernaut that spans more than 100 venues. Henry Higgins worked at Hub 51 in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, as did Tyler Higgins just a few years earlier.

"It's great to all be together working on this," Henry Higgins says.
PictureFloodwater's menu. Click image for larger size.
Floodwater's kitchen is spearheaded by executive chef Michael Siegel, an alum of Real Restaurants' Bix and the former Betelnut but most recently the chef and cofounder of defunct Shorty Goldstein’s Jewish deli. The seasonally sourced menu (see menu at left) leans on gastro-pub fare like burgers, steaks, fresh fish, chicken wings, pizzas, salads and vegetarian dishes, but also features some Shorty Goldstein touches like chicken matzo ball soup and “Shorty’s Reuben” sandwich.

Julian Cox, who was nominated for a James Beard award for his work at Tartine Manufactory, manages the bar menu of cocktails, wines and local craft beers.

The Higgins trio's most daunting task out of the gate was a renovation of the gigantic building adjacent to the Holiday Inn Express. They worked with Whitfield Architects to create an urban rustic interior dominated by a 240-seat space featuring an expansive, 30-foot wood trussed ceiling, a 35-foot bar that faces five large-screen TVs, as well as a main dining room, two private dining spaces and an outdoor patio that seats 45 with glass walls, fire pits and heaters.

A late-night menu is available from 10 p.m. until midnight. On weekends, a limited brunch menu is served from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., along with a lunch menu from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The 411: Floodwater opens Nov. 29 at 152 Shoreline Hwy. in Tam Junction. It will be open Mon.-Fri., 11:30am-midnight, and Sat.-Sun, 10am to midnight. MORE INFO.

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George Lawson Gallery Exhibits Paintings of Ira Watkins Through Dec. 22 – Opening Set for Thu., Nov. 22, 5:30pm

11/20/2019

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Painter Ira Watkins, at left, and his "Mrs. Taylor, "2014, acrylic on canvas board, 16 x 20 in., which is on display at the George Lawson Gallery in Mill Valley through Dec. 22. Courtesy images.
George Lawson Gallery, one of a pair of acclaimed galleries that recently moved from San Francisco to Mill Valley, is set to exhibit selections from paintings from Ira Watkins on Thursday, November 21, 5:30-7:30. 

Watkins, whose career spans 40 years and more than 30 gallery and museum shows, including exhibits at the Asian Art Museum, The Tenderloin Museum and the University of California, will be in attendance at the opening.

"We are honored to be showing a selection of Ira's work," Lawson says. 

Watkins, who moved to San Francisco from Waco, Texas in 1957, initially supported himself playing billiards. After a stint in prison in the 1970s for possession of a firearm, he took up painting, which proved to be a life-changing event. Largely self-taught, Watkins has drawn over a 40-year career on themes of the African-American experience, notably the Bay Area community that migrated from the South during WWII to find work in the shipyards.

Watkins' depiction of the people, places, and events that have touched his life has helped to reshape many of our commonly held narratives of Black America, while his straight-forward paint handling has helped bridge the gap between traditional Eurocentric narrative painting and more current expressive painting modes.

Lawson says Watkins has been described as "flipping the script," both on traditionally held and white social hierarchies and on contemporary painting iconographies. Watkins’ exhibition history also includes a number of mural projects from San Francisco to Waco, where January 17th is officially designated as Ira Watkins Day in honor of his mural of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Watkins is currently artist-in-residence at San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point Shipyard.

The 411: George Lawson Gallery is set to exhibit selections from paintings from Ira Watkins on Thursday, November 21, 5:30-7:30. The exhibit runs through Dec. 22. MORE INFO.

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O'Hanlon Center for the Arts to Cap 50th Anniversary Celebration with Holiday Gift Shop – Through Jan. 2

11/19/2019

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Since the arrival of 2019, the folks at the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts have been celebrating the organization's 50th anniversary with a series of creative events and an arts-centric entry in the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade in May that won a Best in Show trophy.

O'Hanlon is continuing to celebrate the occasion through the end of the year, debuting a locally made holiday gift shop in the center's loft from Nov. 27 to Jan. 2, 2020.

"Member artists and friends of OHCA have donated lovely small works for sale," said O'Hanlon co-director Erma Murphy. "Get unique handmade gifts for the holidays, including handmade ornaments and holiday cards. This is the final fundraiser for out 50th anniversary year! Thank you to all who donated."

The 411: 
O'Hanlon Center for the Arts is debuting a locally made holiday gift shop in the center's loft from Nov. 27 to Jan. 2, 2020. The Loft is open Monday-Friday, 11am-4pm except Thanksgiving on Nov 28. Opening Reception Tuesday, Dec 3, 5:30-7:30. 616 Throckmorton Ave. Loft closed for workshops: Dec. 3 (11am-1pm), Dec. 5 & 12 (11am-12pm). MORE INFO.

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Star Wars, Disco & a Bounty of Great Music: Mill Valley Library's Record Listening Night Spotlights 1977 – Nov. 22

11/18/2019

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It's time for another sonic trip in the wayback machine.

Record Listening Night, the Mill Valley Library's After Hours deep dive into the music of a bygone era, dips into 1977 on Friday, Nov. 22 at 7pm in the Main Reading Room, with everyone invited to bring their favorite records from that year, share a story about their experiences with it and get a little help from the human musical encyclopedia that is Mill Valley Music owner Gary Scheuenstuhl, who will bring a big stack of records from that year. Jim Welte will manage the wheels of steel.

Just as there has been for the Library's past immersions into the music of 1967, 1969 and 1970-74, 1977 is chock full with fantastic music, colorful memories and no shortage of amazing stories. It was a year that saw the arrival of the disco-laden Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, as well as the arrival of a little movie called Star Wars, the final concert – and death two months later – of Elvis Presley, and the release of Fleetwood Mac's Grammy-winning Rumours album. It also marked Led Zeppelin's final U.S. concert in Oakland, Calif., a show that became best known for a wild post-concert brawl erupting between Led Zeppelin's crew and promoter Bill Graham's staff, resulting in criminal assault charges for several of Led Zeppelin's entourage and drummer John Bonham.

The library staff will have beverages and nibbles to give you the energy for all the dancing. And a little bird has told us there will be a mirror ball. Most important, step up to the mic (optional) and share your memories of 1977 and what the music meant to you. Nothing makes memories quite like music, and this will be a night to remember.

The 411: T
he Mill Valley Library's After Hours Record Listening Night dips into 1977 on Friday, Nov. 22 at 7pm in the Main Reading Room. Free. MORE INFO & REGISTER.
 
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