What's Actually Opening On San Anselmo Avenue This Summer

Walk down San Anselmo Avenue in July and the block reads differently than it did a year ago. The corner at 625 has scaffolding coming down. A few doors up, Hilda's is gutted to the studs with a January-style build schedule and a new owner. Up by Red Hill, a freestanding building that sat quiet for months is running a full brunch service. Three separate projects, three separate teams, all landing inside the same six-block stretch inside the same six months. That is not the usual pace for a town this size, and it is worth understanding what is actually behind it before the summer gets away from you.

The Corner At 625: Tụ Tập

The former Kientz Hall space closed in late 2024 and sat dark long enough that most people stopped watching the windows. What is going in is not a neighborhood bistro. Tụ Tập is a modern Vietnamese restaurant with a downstairs lounge, a chef's counter, an oyster bar, and a rooftop patio pointed straight at Mount Tamalpais. The address is 625 San Anselmo Ave, and the opening target is July 2026.

The people behind it are the part that matters. Executive chef and partner Justine Kelly spent eighteen years at The Slanted Door and grew up in San Anselmo. Bill Upson of Real Restaurants, the group behind Bix in San Francisco and Buckeye Roadhouse and Picco here in Marin, is also a partner. Owner Adam Block, who lives in town, has brokered and operated restaurants including Thomas Keller's Per Se. The cooking centers on wok fire, claypot, and live fire over oak, almond, and mesquite.

Block has described the concept as filling a niche for suburban residents who, post-pandemic, are eating closer to home and missing the kind of rooms they used to drive into the city for. Whether or not that framing lands, the operational reality is that a rooftop full bar and a raw bar are not the amenities of a place hedging its bets on a short lease.

Kelly, Upson, Block. Slanted Door, Real Restaurants, Per Se. That is the roster on one corner of a town of twelve thousand people.

Hilda's, Under Reconstruction

Hilda's Coffee Shop closed in late 2025 after more than sixty years on San Anselmo Avenue. If you had a Sunday routine there, you know the loss. The reopening is being led by the Creekside Pizza team under Pat Townsley, with Ann Lowengart Interiors on the design side and concept work with Creekside's Jackson Palmer. Demo is finished. The plan holds the emotional register of the old place while sharpening the menu around breakfast, brunch, and burgers.

The detail worth pausing on is who is doing it. Creekside is not an out-of-town operator looking for a second location. It is the pizzeria on the same street, staffed by people who ate at Hilda's as kids. The renovation is being handled by what Townsley calls a SWAT team of local restaurant builders, an architect, and an engineer. That is a different economic model than a national chain buying the address, and it explains why the timeline has been measured in months of careful build-out rather than weeks of a franchise flip.

Up At Red Hill: Pretti Platters

On May 19, Pretti Platters opened in the freestanding building near Red Hill Shopping Center that previously housed Auryn Thai Cuisine. Four longtime friends bonded by their Thai heritage own it, with a chef friend on the menu build. The format is daytime, but the menu pushes past standard brunch. Toasts with whipped truffle ricotta, roasted wild mushrooms, and bacon. A Parisian croque monsieur. Monterey Bay charbroiled branzino with Meyer lemon beurre blanc. Steak frites au poivre with chimichurri. A sixteen-ounce bone-in heritage pork chop with celery root purée and mustard sauce. Kaluga Reserve caviar with warm housemade roti if you want to make an occasion of a Tuesday.

The morning side runs on Bordenave's country sourdough, a nod to keeping the neighborhood chain intact. Dutch pancakes with warm berry compote and ricotta. Custard-soaked milk bread French toast with Vermont maple syrup. Produce comes off a friend's farm on the co-owner's drive in from Brentwood.

For residents who have been eating at Comforts and Insalata's on rotation for a decade, the point is not that Pretti Platters replaces anything. It is that the daylight hours on that end of town now have a fine-dining floor under them.

What These Three Have In Common

Here is the pattern worth naming. Tụ Tập's team could have opened in the Marina or on Valencia. Kelly's résumé alone would clear a Ferry Building lease conversation. Creekside is a going concern with no need to take on a second address. Pretti Platters could have chosen any daytime spot in the Bay Area. All three chose the same six-block stretch in the same six months.

The industry read on this is straightforward. Marin's 2026 food wave is being written by operators treating the county as a primary address, not a satellite. A satellite is a brand extension. A primary address is where the chef actually shows up on a Tuesday night, where the wine list gets the depth it deserves, where the room is designed for a decade rather than a lease cycle. That distinction is not marketing. It shows up in the food.

For an existing resident, the practical consequence is that the number of nights you have to leave town for a serious dinner just dropped. The rooftop at Tụ Tập is a walk from most of downtown. Pretti Platters is a five-minute drive. Hilda's, when it reopens, restores a piece of the daytime social calendar that anchored the block for two generations.

Quick Reference For The Summer

Because this stretch of the avenue is moving fast enough that a bookmark is warranted:

• Tụ Tập — 625 San Anselmo Ave. Modern Vietnamese with rooftop bar and Mount Tam views. Targeting a July 2026 opening. tutapmarin.com
• Hilda's Coffee Shop — Under reconstruction by the Creekside Pizza team. Reopening in 2026. Breakfast, brunch, burgers.
• Pretti Platters — Near Red Hill Shopping Center in the former Auryn Thai building. Open now for brunch and lunch-into-dinner service.
• The steady bench — Comforts, Insalata's, Cucina, The Baan Thai Cuisine, Kuro Nami Japanese Kitchen, and Creekside Pizza & Taproom continue to hold down the town's dinner rotation.

Two Blocks Over, Same Story

The pattern is not confined to town limits. In Larkspur on Magnolia Avenue, Feerma is under construction in the former Don Antonio's space from Borhen Hammami, formerly of the Michelin-recommended Berber in San Francisco. In Sausalito, Piccino Sul Mare is bringing the Piccino team to the waterfront. In Mill Valley, Tartine is opening its first Marin bakery at Strawberry Village, with Cholita Linda landing in the same shopping center. San Rafael's Fourth Street has M.H. Bread and Butter slated for the former Crepevine space and Hidden Splendor Beer, a new brewery from the founder of Magnolia Brewing, opening early in the year.

Read those together with what is happening on San Anselmo Avenue and the shape becomes clear. Marin residents used to structure a food weekend around a drive into the city. In 2026, the operators the drive was for are opening walkable to home.

Make The Reservation

If you have not been paying attention to what is opening on the avenue, this is the summer to catch up. Book Tụ Tập the week it opens. Put Pretti Platters on the calendar for a long Saturday brunch. Watch the Hilda's windows for the paper to come down. The town you already live in is quietly becoming a food destination for people who do not live here yet.

When you are ready to talk about what all of this means for the block you actually live on, Deborah Cole has been walking these streets for more than twenty-five years and knows the rhythms of San Anselmo the way only a longtime local can. Let's connect.