In 1999, Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt moved Bay Village Bakery from a cottage in Point Reyes Station to downtown Mill Valley. They closed it in early 2002 and left Marin to open the first Tartine in San Francisco's Mission District. Leanne Battelle remembered the bakery in a Marin Independent Journal column: a croque monsieur, rustic loaves to take home, and a line where you could watch the wood-fired bread being baked.
Almost 25 years later, Tartine is back in Mill Valley. It didn't return to Throckmorton. It opened in mid-August at Strawberry Village, at 800 Redwood Highway Frontage Road, in a 3,091-square-foot space with indoor and outdoor seating near the center's new green space. Strawberry Village has had a lot of turnover in the past few years. The tenants arriving now are mostly restaurants and fitness studios, arranged around a plaza that hosts a weekly market.
The spring opening that arrived in August
When EDENS first announced Tartine and Cholita Linda, it described both as part of Strawberry Village's "transformation," the center it bought in 2022. In March 2026, The Ark reported that EDENS expected seven new businesses to open there that year. Alexander Ragonese, EDENS' senior vice president of investment and development, said Tartine and Cholita Linda were on track for spring.
They opened in August. The same Ark article listed the departures that came before: Bella boutique earlier in 2026, Woodlands Pet Food & Treats and Spanish Table in 2025, Pizza Antica in 2023. Mike's Camera, a tenant for five decades, closed in 2023 after lease negotiations failed. Woodlands moved to The Cove, and its old space was assigned to Barry's Bootcamp.
In March, five of the center's 55 leasable spaces were vacant, according to The Ark. Most of the replacements are a different kind of tenant from the ones that left.
Suites 801 through 807
Cholita Linda opened directly across the roadway from Tartine. It's the sixth location for Vanessa Chavez and Murat Sozeri and their first in Marin. The couple built a following starting in 2008 at the Jack London Square farmers market in Oakland. Chavez told the Marin IJ why they chose Strawberry:
"From our experience, it's a community that values good food, and there are lots of small businesses that do things really well."
Cholita Linda is in Suite 801. Within the 800s, five suites numbered 801 to 807 now hold a Latin restaurant, an acai and soft-serve cafe, a hot yoga studio, a Pilates studio and a hydration clinic.
| Business | Suite | What it is | Listed hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tartine | 125 | All-day bakery and cafe. Pastries, cakes and savory dishes made on site; bread baked in San Francisco | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily |
| Cholita Linda | 801 | California Latin: Baja fish tacos, pescado frito, Cubano sandwiches, house aguas frescas | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily |
| Lulu Dae's | 802 | Locally owned cafe: acai bowls, matcha, juices, musubi, soft serve | 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily |
| Hot Yoga Republic | 804 | Hot yoga, hot Pilates, power yoga | See studio schedule |
| Club Pilates | 805 | Pilates classes | See studio schedule |
| Hydration Room | 807 | Appointment-based hydration services | See booking page |
Lulu Dae's is in the space Woody's Yogurt held for 20 years before it closed in 2020, under the previous landlord. So a frozen-dessert counter sits in that storefront again.
Both restaurants are big enough to count as gathering places on their own. Tartine seats 120 indoors and outdoors. The room, designed by Studio BBA, has floor-to-ceiling windows and blond wood tables. Cholita Linda seats about 70 inside, plus tables outdoors. Its interior is papel picado and string lights under a high ceiling, with tiled rooflines and shuttered windows that make parts of the room look like building facades. Both have confirmed they're still operating this month. Tartine's Mill Valley page carries an October 2026 sample menu, and Cholita Linda's online ordering still lists the Suite 801 location.
The plaza is what holds it together
Restaurants and studios fit together here because of an earlier renovation of the 175,385-square-foot property. EDENS says that work brought a new color palette, lighting, landscaping, outdoor seating and signage. It also reworked the central plaza and green space for live music and community events. Three murals by Bay Area artists Erin Fong, Nicole Mueller and Nora Bruhn went up as part of the same push.
The plaza now has a regular schedule. Here's what the Strawberry Village events page lists for the rest of fall:
- Every Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.: Strawberry Village Farmers Market, described as weekly, all local and all organic, with produce, baked goods, flowers and artisan foods.
- Second Saturday of each month, 8 to 9:30 a.m.: Porsche Marin's Motor Social, a cars-and-coffee meetup in the same spot as the farmers market. The remaining 2026 dates are November 14 and December 12.
- Saturday, October 24, 3 to 5 p.m.: The PAAM Pumpkin Bash, promoted on the center's feed and held at PAAM, 60 Belvedere Drive. It has pumpkin decorating, carnival games, a bounce house, trick-or-treating and a Monster Mash dance party.
The market wraps up at 2:30, so you can shop and then have lunch at Tartine before it closes at 4 p.m. Cholita Linda stays open until 9, so it's the only one of the two serving dinner.
What's still on the way
In March, The Ark reported that the former Pizza Antica, Spanish Table and Mike's Camera spaces were expected to remain open for lease after the announced openings. That was a forecast, and those three spaces haven't had a public update since.
Ragonese also told The Ark that two more retailers had signed but hadn't been announced, one in wellness and one in interior design. Since then, the center has announced that Ernesta, a custom-rug company, has opened a showroom at 800 Redwood Highway with free design consultations.
Barry's Bootcamp is in the EDENS directory at space 475. No public opening date has been announced for the old Woodlands space, so treat it as coming, not open.
The next restaurant has a date. Baan Thai Reserve is listed as coming in 2027 at 615 Strawberry Village. EDENS says it will serve Thai classics like pad thai, curries and pad see ew, plus a bar with an Asian-inspired cocktail menu. That would make three full-service food tenants on the plaza. A cocktail bar would also keep the center busy later into the evening than its current tenants do.
The same thing is happening up East Blithedale
Strawberry isn't the only Mill Valley shopping center adding everyday food this year. Mendocino Farms, the Southern California sandwich and salad chain, opened its first Marin restaurant at Alto Center, 745 East Blithedale Ave., Suite 3, next to Whole Foods. The Marin IJ covered it in June. It's the chain's 17th Northern California location, open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, with a brick patio under a redwood tree.
Of the three Mill Valley openings the IJ covered this summer, all three landed in shopping centers near Highway 101. Tartine and Cholita Linda opened in August at Strawberry Village, and Mendocino Farms was open at Alto by early June. The 2026 restaurant news on this side of town came from the centers, with parking lots and outdoor seating built in.
A shopping center's mix of tenants affects how the streets around it feel day to day. If you own nearby and want to know how changes like Tartine's return and Baan Thai Reserve's 2027 opening factor into your home's value, Daniel Nebenzahl can walk you through it street by street. Request Your Home Valuation.
