The holiday season arrives next month, and what better way to usher it in than the annual Enjoy Mill Valley Winterfest, one of our community's most heartwarming events of the year, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 11am-5pm in the Downtown Plaza. 

Produced by the Mill Valley Chamber and Team Pro Event with a plethora of help from the City of Mill Valley, Mill Valley Refuse and a legion of volunteers, this free holiday event draws families and friends from throughout Mill Valley and all over Marin to immerse themselves in the holiday spirit, complete with the midday arrival of Santa on a Mill Valley Fire truck.

​In addition to the jaw-droppingly large rainbow slide, a jumpee house and an array of activities and games for children, the event also boasts delicious, free sips and bites from fantastic local restaurants like Piazza D'Angelo, Good Earth Natural Foods, Super Duper Burger, Equator Coffees, Vitality Bowls and Brooklyn!

There will be free bike and stroller parking throughout the day from the Marin County Bicycle Coalition with support from Tam Bikes.

The Incredible lineup of live music and dance features Performing Arts Academy of Marin, Marin Conservatory of Dance
Tam High Holiday Ensemble, Happy Feet Dance School, Rock the Ages, Natalia Betzler & Noah Chann, Roco Dance and Singers Marin, as well as Mayoral Welcome from Mayor Jim Wickham and a Holiday Tree Lighting at the conclusion of the event at 5pm. 

There will also be donation stations for unwrapped toy donations for the Toys for Tots program and the Performing Stars of Marin via the Mill Valley Fire Department and warm coats for One Warm Coat.

Thanks to all of the people, businesses and organizations who help make this free event possible, including our amazing sponsors Redwood Credit Union, Piazza D'Angelo, Good Earth Natural Foods, Budget Blinds, Dana Williams from Compass, Mathnasium, Upper Cervical of Marin, Redwood Trust, FastSigns, MCE Marin Clean Energy, WrapManager and Chambers + Chambers Architects, along with the amazing contributions of Ken Brooks, Gary Ferber Photography, ​Hamilton Ink and Kiddo!.

Hope to see you on December 8!!

MORE INFO.

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McEvoy Ranch has been churning out its award-winning extra-virgin organic olive oil for decades, along with an array of tapenades, bruschettas, kitchen utensils, cookbooks and much more from its gorgeous property in Petaluma.

Now those acclaimed products are available at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard, as McEvoy Ranch has launched a pop-up shop there for the holiday season. The pop-up is located within MVLY's suite 602, which is between recent arrival Watershed Restaurant and The Edit apparel boutique.

"We’ll be there until the end of the year, so make sure to stop by!" says McEvoy Ranch's Helen McEvoy.

After the holiday season, the space will revert to a long-term collaboration between Watershed owner Ged Robertson and Omnivore Books, the culinary bookshop in San Francisco's Mission District that features new, antiquarian, and collectible books on food and drink.

"We're still finalizing all of the details but it'll be a space that will offer vintage books and cookbooks as well as tinned fish, local cheese, meats and other picnic type goods starting in 2020," Robertson says. "We wanted to get the space activated for the holiday, so we thought McEvoy Ranch would be the perfect fit."

The 411: McEvoy Ranch has opened a holiday pop-up shop at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard within MVLY's suite 602, which is between recent arrival Watershed Restaurant and The Edit apparel boutique. MVLY is at 129 Miller Ave. MORE INFO.

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Green Jeans Garden Supply, the longtime local business opened in 1997 by husband-and-wife team Kevin Sadlier and Xander Wessells and operated as such ever since, was burglarized on Nov. 7.

Their customers, friends and supporters quickly rallied to help the shop recover, launching a GoFundMe campaign and raising more than $6,000 to date toward a $10,000 goal to help the couple restore its inventory. 

The burglars reportedly "took an enormous amount of expensive plants, pottery and sculptures including one of a kind art" from the shop, which is located on the Redwood Hwy. frontage road in Strawberry.   

"We are so grateful and surprised by so much generous support from so many," the couple wrote in a reply to the fundraising campaign. "Not only will this allow us to help restock what was taken, but it restores our faith in humanity and inspires us to continue what Green Jeans has to offer."

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Since she was little, Santa Barbara native Juli Lippire has had a knack for helping family and friends organize spaces in their homes. But it wasn't until recently that she decided to turn that skill and passion into a business.

Lippire worked for many years in the office of a head and neck surgeon, and in the course of that work, she realized she was much more passionate about organizing the office and using its space more efficiently than she was about her role in designing the practice's surgery protocols.

She acted on that realization, and hasn't looked back. 

Lippire launched Modify Organizing in Santa Barbara, and immediately garnered work across the spectrum of residential hoarders to businesses that needed a critical eye for how to better organize themselves. She's also worked with a number of startup companies and recently helped a venture capital firm organize their offices so that they could function while they grew.

"Anytime someone feels like they're overwhelmed by their space, I try to come in and give them a fresh set of eyes on everything," she says. 

The biggest misconception about her work, Lippire says, is that the transition will take forever. 

"I’m always pretty amazed at how much change you can create in just a a couple of hours," she says. "Some people are really good at languages – everybody has their passion. I love tackling big projects in a short amount of time, and dramatic change can come in just a couple of hours."

Lippire recently moved to Tiburon, drawn by the natural beauty, the weather and the community. She says she's excited to help her neighbors and friends in Marin de-clutter.

Oh, and the wave of "does it spark joy?" reality shows about hoarders and organizers like Tidying Up with Marie Kondo? Lippire says she loves them. "Anything that can give people ideas about ways they can reduce the clutter in their homes or offices is a good thing," she says. 

The 411: Juli Lippire's Modify Organizing focuses on both residential and commercial projects. MORE INFO & FAQS.

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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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Poet and/the Bench, the four-year-old lifestyle store and jewelry atelier space from Jeffrey Levin and Bonnie Powers – and "Best Gifts" winners in Marin Magazine's 2019 Best of the County issue – continues its run of hosting innovative, thought-provoking events with a gathering that combines art and food in the spirit of sparking dialogue.

The "Art-Full Conversation," set for Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7pm, is the first of a series that pairs Chef Antonio Candelario of De La Terra Kitchen with one of the artists whose work is on display at the shop at the 11 Throckmorton Avenue space, in this case artist Jeffrey Palladini. The couple says the event centers around a "chat over a communal dinner where the convergence of food culture, art and inspiration meet. We have always envisioned Poet and/the Bench to be a gathering place for lively dialogue, discovery and appreciation of artistic expression. This series broadens our mission through an amplified culinary experience."

Under the theme "Encountering the Unexpected," the event Is "in the spirit of the traditional Souk, where wandering the mazes of a marketplace brings surprises around every corner" as part of  "a thematic, regionally influenced menu," including five courses that are seafood and vegetarian forward.

Candelario specializes in modern Mediterranean soul food, and his research and experimentation on different cultures and their culinary heritage have taken him all over the world seeking out foods and flavor, from his Caribbean roots to a love of North African cuisine and many cultures in between. In Palladini's latest thesis, Thread Series, the random looping and twisting patterns of a dropped length of twine are a seductive metaphor for the way we get from our aims and dreams to the outcomes. "The more you try to exert control the random creeps in, [and] it turns out that the more you try to represent the random the more control creeps in," Palladini says.

A few seats remain for the limited seating event. 

The 411: Poet and/the Bench continues its run of hosting innovative, thought-provoking events with "Art-Full Conversation," set for Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7pm, featuring Chef Antonio Candelario of De La Terra Kitchen and artist Jeffrey Palladini. 11 Throckmorton Avenue. Tix $145. MORE INFO & TIX. 

Hey Mill Valley!

The PG&E blackout has ended (for now)!

If you were ever looking for a reason to #ShopMV, skip that Amazon click and support your local businesses, many of whom are your neighbors and all of whom lost thousands of dollars in business over the past several days, NOW IS THE TIME!

We've got a thread going here of who is open today and going forward. We know community anchor Mill Valley Market has been open throughout the outage, offering much-needed charging stations and ice. Whole Foods Market is open. At the Mill Valley Lumber Yard, Once Around is open. Flour Craft Bakery Mill Valley and BOL Superfood Cafe - Marin will be open on Thursday. Who else?!?

Check out our FB thread here for the latest updates – and feel free to add to it! Now let's get out of the house and support our neighbors!

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Two years after it was approved to open in the 250 East Blithedale Ave. center that used to contain Mill Valley Services, Tony Tutto Pizza and SummerHouse, Le Marais Bakery, French native Patrick Ascaso’s renowned bakery and bistro that first opened in 2013 on Chestnut Street in San Francisco, is eyeing an opening in January 2020 within the revamped 29,565-square-foot space that already includes Compass, AP Luxe Salon and Belle Marin Aesthetic Medicine.

But before it does so, Ascaso and his team have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help furnish a community patio in front of the space.

"Six years after our first shop opened, our business has come full circle," Acaso says in the video announcing the Kickstarter campaign. "Now we are growing to our fourth location and we are bringing more local jobs, locally made croissants an pastries, French roast coffee and classic French food I grew up with that my grandmother and mother once made for me to another community," he says. 

San Francisco-based WorldCo., which bought the 250 East Blithedale Avenue property in 2014, received Commission approval in May 2016 to redevelop the 71-year-old buildings on the lot to include three retail spaces and one restaurant. They’re doing just that, razing the former Tony Tutto building near the streetfront and renovating the two larger buildings that contained Mill Valley Services and SummerHouse.

Le Marais, named after the popular historic district in Paris, boasts a menu that ranges from coffee and pastries, baguettes and desserts to an array of breakfast, lunch and dinner items, including French favorites like traditional the croque monsieur and madame (menu).

Le Marais Bakery has another location in Ghiradelli Square, one on Castro Street and a commissary kitchen in the way in the Tenderloin. Ascasco’s eatery would be something of anomaly in Mill Valley, as most cafes don’t serve dinner and most restaurants don’t open for coffee and pastries at 6am. 

"The space has all the character and charm we've found in our other locations, large windows and beamed, barrel-vaunted ceilings. We spent the past two and a half years getting city approvals, design, and now are well on our way in construction," Ascaso says of the new space. 

The 411: Le Marais Bakery, French native Patrick Ascaso’s renowned bakery and bistro that first opened in 2013 on Chestnut Street in San Francisco, is eyeing an opening at 250 East Blithedale Avenue in January 2020.

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