The concrete deck over Building Bridge 2 still sits behind its fence on San Anselmo Avenue. For years it's been the slab between the sidewalk and the Creek Park redwoods, and it's been closed for most of this decade. Across the street from Creekside Pizza & Taproom, which sits next to the fence, a mustard-yellow Carpigiani machine now pours soft-serve at Tasty Delicious. Outside it there's a new parklet with seating for about 50 people, built with angled corners so drivers at the crosswalk can see past it.
The town has a design for the plaza, and the design has a lot going for it. It also has a timeline that runs into 2028. Until then, downtown's outdoor living room is being built one parking space at a time by the restaurants on the Avenue. The best way to plan a fall evening downtown is to follow the parklets.
How a fenced plaza ended up with a 2028 date
The plaza's history explains the wait. The Marin IJ's August coverage of the redesign laid out the sequence:
- 2020: During the pandemic, the town leased the bridge and set out picnic tables and wood chips. Several parking spaces next to it became parklets.
- 2022: The county ended the lease because the structure might be unstable, and most of the surface was fenced off. The parklets and some sidewalk tables stayed.
- Early 2026: FEMA said it would not approve removing the bridge. In February the town renewed its lease with the county, and in May the county supervisors canceled the bridge project.
- June 17, 2026: The town and the County Flood Control District announced the plaza would not be ready for the June 20 start of Live on the Avenue. Engineers had found that the bridge's substructure needed repair and reinforcement before people could safely use it again.
- August 2026: At a special meeting, the Town Council voted unanimously for the "curvilinear terrace" concept from RHAA Landscape Architects of Mill Valley. It calls for pedestrian paths, shaded seating, stone walls, wooden decks, and greenery stepping up to the redwood grove.
Live on the Avenue went ahead anyway. San Anselmo Avenue closed from Tunstead to Tamalpais on Friday and Saturday evenings. The final weekend was September 12, and the plaza never opened this year.
The dates still to come are less certain. A joint release from the county and the town says the cost of the structural work isn't known yet. District staff expect to bring a funding agreement to the Board of Supervisors in early 2027. Town Manager Dave Donery told the IJ the work could be done by early 2028, and he added that this "is obviously pending successful fundraising."
Mayor Steve Burdo said he was "very proud that we've gotten to this point." Supervisor Brian Colbert called it "a very positive moment for San Anselmo." Both describe a plan with momentum, and its earliest stated finish is still more than a year away.
The parklets came out of that same 2020 experiment
The plaza and the parklets started together. In 2020 the town put picnic tables on the bridge and turned nearby parking spaces into outdoor seating. When the county fenced the bridge two years later, the parklets stayed.
They're no longer temporary. San Anselmo's parklet guidelines set up a permanent program, and every parklet needs an encroachment permit, including the ones left over from the temporary program. The town's 2026 annual notice lists the cost at $2,520 per space plus a $950 administrative fee, and applications are due every January 31.
The guidelines also cap the total. Private parklets can take up no more than 5% of the on-street parking in the commercial area. Each one gets its own review for how it relates to the storefront, whether drivers can see the crosswalk, and safety. That's why Tasty Delicious drew its parklet with angled corners.
Parking runs through the plaza debate too. At the August meeting, several public comments asked for parking to be restored, and Councilmember Eileen Burke named keeping parking as a concern. In May the council created a downtown resident parking permit. It costs $50 a year, or $25 for qualifying low-income applicants, and lets holders park all day in designated four-hour zones and overnight in legal district spaces. The same resolution changed Pine Street parking between 130 Pine St. and Cedar Street from two hours to four. Each parklet seat is a parking space the Avenue chose to use differently, and the cap keeps that trade small.
Two new restaurants, two very different outdoor rooms
This summer's two biggest downtown openings both came with parklets, and both parklets were built to last.
Tụ Tập, 625 San Anselmo Ave. This upscale Vietnamese restaurant and bar opened in late July. It's in the space that was a bakery for 57 years and then Kientz Hall, which closed in late 2024. Sleepy Hollow resident Adam Block, a hospitality consultant, partnered with investor Bill Upson of Real Restaurants and executive chef Justine Kelly. Kelly grew up in San Anselmo and spent 18 years working with Charles Phan of the Slanted Door restaurants.
"From my early 20s, I did know that if I were to open one someday, it would be in San Anselmo because my heart is there." Justine Kelly, to the Marin IJ
The name means "gathering" in Vietnamese. There are 114 seats downstairs and 48 on a weatherized rooftop with views of Mount Tamalpais, where retractable glass panels and a louvered roof open and close at the push of a button. The front parklet has a custom faux-bamboo steel railing and a retractable awning reused from the old Kientz Hall roof. It's mostly walk-in, with a limited number of reservation seats held in the back room. Kelly is opening with a "soft menu" of about 22 dishes and plans to grow it to roughly 35.
Tasty Delicious, 639 San Anselmo Ave. This burger and shake shop opened last week in the former Hilda's Coffee Shop, which closed last fall. Hilda's needed major work to meet current building, health, and accessibility codes. The team includes operations manager Ryan Soifer, managing partner Pat Townsley, who owns Creekside Pizza & Taproom across the street at 638 San Anselmo Ave., and chef and general manager Jackson Palmer, a Mill Valley native. Palmer tested burger blends in a cast-iron skillet at Creekside and settled on a custom 80-20 Black Angus mix.
Burgers run $10 to $14, fries start at $5, and a 12-ounce shake is $6. The soft-serve uses high-butterfat milk from the Jersey herd at Valley Ford Cheese & Creamery. The dining room is only 12 feet wide and seats about 34. It has a mural of old San Anselmo by San Rafael artist Stella Prichard, Bubba's original clock near the kitchen, and Hilda's old sign by the bathroom door. Since the inside is that small, the 50-seat parklet adds more seats than the dining room has, and a retractable waterproof canopy is on the way.
Starting Oct. 5, hours expand from 4 to 9 p.m. to 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The hand-cut, twice-fried fries arrive in late October. A coffee-shop-style breakfast, including Hilda's pancakes, is planned for later this year.
Both restaurants spent money on outdoor gear meant for cold or wet nights, including a rooftop that closes at the push of a button, a reused awning, and a canopy on order. Those choices make sense for businesses that expect to be the downtown gathering spot for a while.
One more spot, a block off the Avenue
Next is Maison Nico, a bakery-café going into 121 Tunstead Ave., the former Jack's Drug Store/Medical Supplies. The town approved off-site wine sales, limited to a display of about six feet plus a wine club. The applicant expects renovations to wrap up in early November but hasn't set an opening date. Tunstead is the same corner where the Live on the Avenue closure began each summer weekend.
October still runs through Creek Park
The fenced deck doesn't keep the park itself quiet. Several of this month's events use Creek Park and the Avenue together:
- Saturday, Oct. 10, 9 a.m.: The last free downtown history walk of 2026 starts at Creek Park and ends at the Historical Museum.
- Saturday, Oct. 10, 2 to 6 p.m.: The Creek Park 52nd Anniversary, with The Boogie Chillun, Plan B from the Planet Earth, Lion's Share, and a history talk.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 9 a.m. to noon: The Community Volunteer Fall Clean-up meets at Town Hall Plaza. Volunteers will clean San Anselmo Avenue and nearby side streets, clear storm drains, and tidy the Creek Park parklet, then get lunch at Tasty Delicious.
- Friday, Oct. 23, from 5 p.m.: The Goblins' BOOtacular, with costumed trick-or-treating at participating businesses along San Anselmo Avenue.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m.: The ECHO Chamber Orchestra performs "As Above So Below."
The 10th makes the easiest full day. Take the history walk in the morning, eat lunch on a parklet, and come back to the park for the anniversary bands in the afternoon. Event times sometimes change, so check with organizers before you go.
The Creek Park redesign is a long-term civic project that depends on a funding agreement still to come and fundraising that isn't finished. Tasty Delicious's 11 a.m. opening on Oct. 5 is much closer.
If you're thinking about how a 2028 plaza and a growing row of permanent parklets could shape life on San Anselmo Avenue, Marc Machado is glad to talk it through over a $6 shake. Reach Out Today.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
