"When the opportunity came to help carry it forward, the goal was never to erase what people loved," Jaxton Funk told the Marin Independent Journal in July, a few weeks before he and Johnny "Love" Metheny opened Notte Divino on Caledonia Street. "The goal was to honor it."
That line describes more than one restaurant. Sausalito had a full year of dining turnover in 2026, and the openings with the shortest path from empty room to full tables kept the most from the business before them. That meant the same chef, the same bar top, sometimes the same chairs. The project that started from a bare shell took more than three years. Two of the best-known rooms on Bridgeway have no confirmed successor at all.
Caledonia Street kept its chef and added later nights
Osteria Divino at 37 Caledonia St. closed earlier this year. Owner Elizabeth Nebot had run it for 20 years. Funk, a San Francisco bartender and bar manager, partnered with Metheny to reopen the space as Notte Divino. They opened on July 24 with a celebration honoring Nebot. The Sausalito Chamber of Commerce listed a ribbon-cutting and grand opening for that evening.
The kitchen barely changed. Chef Yovani Castillo spent 12 years cooking at Osteria Divino, and he came back with much of the original menu intact. The house-made focaccia with dipping oil is still there. So are the oven-baked fennel with Parmigiano-Reggiano and the Brussels sprouts with butternut squash, pancetta, brown butter and sage. The gnocchi is still made in-house, and the lasagna is still layered with braised beef ragù.
The changes are in the bar and the clock. Funk said the bigger shift would be from classic to craft cocktails and later hours, which fits both owners' backgrounds. Metheny owns the Blue Light and Toy Soldier in San Francisco and is a partner in Buena Vida Cantina and Ranch Water in San Rafael. The opening cocktail list included an Italian Sour, a whiskey sour topped with Lambrusco, and the Serpente & Furore, made with green Chartreuse, gin, elderflower and cucumber. The wine list leans toward southern Italian grapes. The music carries over too. Funk said several of the jazz regulars Nebot booked were expected back for weekend shows. Posted hours have differed between sources since the opening, so call ahead before planning a late dinner.
On Johnson Street, the bar top stayed
The second-floor room at 303 Johnson St. has been a restaurant since the 1960s. It has passed through Harbor View Restaurant, Cat N Fiddle, Flynn's Landing, Christopher's and, for 12 years, the Seafood Peddler, which closed in 2024. The Marin IJ described the interior as holding steady through all of those changes, with its dark timber, nautical accents and marina backdrop.
The Andresen family opened Lighthouse Bar & Grill there in April. For them it was a return to the start. More than three decades ago, while Annette and Gerner Andresen were still in Denmark looking at restaurants in the United States, this room was the first one they were called to see. That deal fell through. The same property manager then pointed them a few blocks north on Bridgeway, to a lot that the Sausalito Historical Society says was part of an 18-hole miniature golf course in the 1920s. Gerner Andresen opened Lighthouse Café there in 1992, serving Danish American breakfast. The café is still listed at 1311 Bridgeway in Marin Magazine's August 2026 guide, separate from the new bar and grill.
When the Seafood Peddler closed, the landlord came back to the Andresens. Kenneth Andresen, who runs the new restaurant with his parents, said the Peddler's chef and sous chef are still in the kitchen. The lobster and Dungeness crab rolls, clam chowder, lobster bisque and crab Louis all carried over with some changes. New additions include a dedicated steak menu and a Danish-style wiener schnitzel. The retail fish market and lobster tank are gone. The bar top stayed, freshly polished and still marked by decades of regulars. The tables and chairs are the same ones, sanded and revarnished by the landlord, who is a woodworker.
What each new owner kept
| Room | Before | Kept from the last tenant | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 37 Caledonia St. | Osteria Divino, 20 years under Elizabeth Nebot | Chef Yovani Castillo, most of the menu, weekend jazz | July 24, 2026 |
| 303 Johnson St. | Seafood Peddler, 12 years | Chef and sous chef, bar top, tables and chairs, signature seafood dishes | April 2026 |
| 690 Bridgeway | Caffè Tutti, vacant since 2020 | The 1915 building itself | Feb. 17, 2026 |
Across from the ferry, starting over took three years
Cultivar Sausalito is the outlier in the table. It is the one opening this year that kept almost nothing from before. Napa siblings Jody Harris and Gingy Harris Gable, third-generation farmers and winemakers, opened it on Feb. 17 at 690 Bridgeway, at the corner of El Portal and across from the ferry terminal. The building dates to 1915. Its last tenant, Caffè Tutti, moved out in 2020. Harris leased that space and the space next door, which had been planned as an art gallery, and combined them.
Harris is also a general contractor. He told the Press Democrat the project cost more than $4 million and took more than three years. He described the timeline this way:
- About a year of entitlements, including work with the city on an outdoor patio that pushed the sidewalk out into the street.
- About a year of structural work.
- About a year and a half of tenant improvements.
What came out of it is a 4,500-square-foot flagship, three times the size of Cultivar San Francisco. The owners planned for about 60 employees. Executive Chef Matthew Curry works with the family's culinary gardener at Caspar Estate, which supplies produce, wildflower honey and olive oil from a family property that dates back more than 60 years. Cultivar opened with dinner and planned to add lunch and breakfast later. Marin Magazine included it in its August 2026 Sausalito guide. Gable said the family has come to Sausalito for years to sail.
Two Bridgeway rooms still have no successor
The Trident at 558 Bridgeway closed for the second time at the turn of the year. General manager Rick Enos told the Marin IJ that a better-than-expected New Year's Eve left too little to run a full menu, so the staff closed a day early and skipped New Year's Day. The Kingston Trio and their manager, Frank Werber, opened the first Trident in 1966. Bartenders there reworked the tequila sunrise, and the Rolling Stones took it on their 1972 tour. The room became Horizons in 1980. Bob Freeman, who founded Victoria Station and California Café, brought the Trident name back in 2012 to reconnect the building to its past. That 2012 reopening was itself an inheritance. It brought back the name, the history and the view.
This time no successor has been announced. Freeman told the San Francisco Chronicle that earlier sale talks fell through, partly because the City of Sausalito owns the parcels under the parking area. No sale, new tenant or reuse plan has been reported since then.
Up the street, the former Wells Fargo bank at 715 Bridgeway has an approved plan and no opening date. Developer Kent Ipsen's project includes a ground-floor restaurant and three hotel suites upstairs. The City Council affirmed the approval at its Aug. 5, 2025 meeting. In March 2026, a lawsuit settlement removed the planned rooftop deck, and Ipsen said he looked forward to moving ahead. No restaurant name, construction start or opening timeline has been reported. Going by Cultivar's three-year build at 690 Bridgeway, the bank conversion may take a while.
For now, the 2026 additions you can actually book are Notte Divino on Caledonia, Lighthouse Bar & Grill above the marina on Johnson, and Cultivar across from the ferry.
The rooms that reopened fastest this year kept their best features and changed only what needed changing. It works the same way with houses. When a seller wonders what to keep before listing, Daniel Nebenzahl brings a designer's eye to sorting the features buyers will value from the ones worth updating. Request your home valuation and start with an honest look at what your rooms already have going for them.
