For as long as Live on the Avenue has run two stages, San Anselmo has split into two kinds of Friday nights. There's the Creek Park crowd, spreading blankets under the redwoods for a set at the amphitheater. And there's the Town Hall Plaza crowd, staying close to the pavement where the avenue itself becomes the show. Most regulars pick a side out of habit and stick with it all summer.
That habit is worth breaking this year. The bands haven't changed the format. What's changed is the three blocks of San Anselmo Avenue connecting the two stages, which spent the winter and spring quietly filling in with the kind of restaurant openings that don't happen in a normal season, let alone all at once.
The Split That's Always Defined a Live on the Avenue Night
The event itself hasn't moved. Fridays and Saturdays from June 20 through September 12, San Anselmo Avenue closes to cars from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m., and music runs 6 to 8:30 at two distinct venues: Creek Park Amphitheater, tucked into a redwood grove with lawn seating, and Town Hall Plaza, set directly on the closed avenue. This Friday, August 7, the Mad Maggies play Town Hall Plaza while Soul Ska takes Creek Park. Saturday, August 8 pairs Sun Hunter Band downtown with Hall Pass at the park. The lineup keeps swapping genres and stages through the season, with Pride & Joy SF and Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88's on August 15, Zydeco Flames and BlackCat Zydeco on August 21, and a Creek Park Star Wars double feature paired with Swami 3 at Town Hall Plaza to close out August on the 29th.
None of that is new information if you've lived here more than a summer. What is new is what's happening on the sidewalk while you walk from one stage to the other.
What's Different in 2026 Isn't the Bands
In past years, the stretch between Creek Park and Town Hall Plaza was mostly a pass-through: storefronts you walked past on your way to a lawn chair or a spot near the stage. This year, that stretch is where the actual investment landed. Four storefronts on or just off the avenue have opened, reopened, or announced a return in the same window the concert series runs.
| New Arrival | Location | What's There Now |
|---|---|---|
| Tụ Tập | 625 San Anselmo Ave, former Kientz Hall | Vietnamese-inspired menu with a rooftop bar, soft-opened late July 2026 |
| Pretti Platters | Former Auryn Thai space near Red Hill Shopping Center | All-day brunch-to-dinner menu, opened May 19, 2026 |
| Hilda's Coffee Shop | A few doors down from Tụ Tập | Under new ownership, reconstruction nearing completion |
| Maison Nico | Former Jack's Drugs space on Tunstead Ave | Bakery and courtyard dining, targeting a mid-October opening |
That's a lot of turnover for a few blocks in one season, and it's layered onto an avenue that already had a Michelin nod. Insalata's, chef Heidi Krahling's longtime spot named for her late father Italo, picked up a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 Michelin Guide, the designation reserved for good food at a fair price. The avenue wasn't short on dining before this wave. It's now stacking new openings on top of an anchor that was already drawing outside attention.
The Rooftop at 625 San Anselmo Ave
The most visible change sits at the address itself. Tụ Tập took over the long-vacant Kientz Hall building with a rooftop bar that looks out toward Mount Tamalpais, run by executive chef Justine Kelly, who spent 18 years in the kitchen at San Francisco's Slanted Door and grew up in San Anselmo. The menu leans on a mesquite grill and a raw bar, with a weekend brunch that blends Chinese and Vietnamese dishes.
"It's been really emotional for me to do the project."
That's Kelly, describing the restaurant to the San Francisco Chronicle as a tribute to Slanted Door founder Charles Phan, who died in 2025 and had reportedly been planning a Vietnamese noodle concept of his own in Marin before his death. Whatever comes of that unfinished project, Kelly's version landed first, and it landed on the exact block that closes to traffic every Friday and Saturday night through mid-September.
A Few Doors Down, Three More Reasons to Slow Down
Walk past Tụ Tập and you hit Hilda's Coffee Shop, closed for a full remodel with interior design from Ann Lowengart Interiors and a concept developed by restaurant veterans Pat Townsley and Jackson Palmer of Creekside Pizza & Taproom. Creekside, notably, is also the concert series' sponsoring restaurant, which means the same business bankrolling the music is also shaping what opens next door to it.
Head the other direction toward Red Hill and you'll find Pretti Platters, opened in May by four longtime friends who bonded over their shared Thai heritage. The menu skews toward brunch with dinner-worthy ambition: Dutch pancakes, a croque monsieur with Gruyère and Black Forest ham, and a bone-in heritage pork chop with celery root puree. It replaced Auryn Thai Cuisine in a building that had sat with that identity for years.
A few blocks over on Tunstead, the former Jack's Drugs space is being rebuilt into Maison Nico, a bakery and courtyard dining concept. At an Economic Development Committee session this summer, the team described hopes for a mid-October opening, following a construction timeline that's already run into the kind of delays typical for older downtown buildings.
The Same Buildings the Walking Tour Is Already Explaining
There's a reason so much of this construction is happening inside old shells instead of new ones. San Anselmo's downtown grew up around the railroad, and much of the building stock on and near the avenue dates to that era, including Kientz Hall itself. The town runs a free, docent-led Historical Walking Tour departing from Creek Park that covers the historic Hub, the railroad's role in the town's development, and the way the avenue's businesses and architecture have shifted over time. This year's remaining tour dates are August 8, September 12, and October 10.
Put those dates next to the restaurant list and the overlap is hard to miss. The August 8 tour happens the same weekend Sun Hunter Band and Hall Pass play the two stages. The September 12 tour lands on the final night of Live on the Avenue for the season. The tour guide walking you past the Hub's old railroad-era storefronts is describing the same buildings that now house a Vietnamese rooftop bar and a bakery under construction. The history and the renovation are the same story told at two different speeds.
How to Actually Use This Before September 12
If you've been treating Live on the Avenue as a pick-a-stage-and-stay-put event, here's a version that accounts for what's changed:
- Park once, early. The avenue closes to cars from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. on show nights, and the town's paid parking system has drawn plenty of complaints from regulars this year, so circling for a second spot later in the evening is a bad use of a Friday.
- Catch one set at Town Hall Plaza, then walk the three blocks toward Creek Park instead of driving anywhere in between. That walk is now the point, not just the commute between bands.
- If you're walking on a Tụ Tập night, book the rooftop ahead. A restaurant with Mount Tam views and a brand-new opening is not going to have same-day tables during a summer when the avenue is already full of people.
- Time a visit to land on August 8 or September 12 if the Hub's history interests you. The walking tour turns the same three blocks into a different kind of evening before the music starts.
The two stages will keep splitting the crowd through mid-September, same as they always have. What's worth noticing this year is that the walk connecting them stopped being empty sidewalk and started being the reason to come downtown at all.
Whether you're already calling San Anselmo Avenue your regular Friday spot or you're weighing what a town like this actually offers day to day, Kris Klein keeps a close eye on what's changing here block by block. If the conversation ever turns from restaurant reservations to real estate, reach out for a straightforward look at what your home is worth in this market.
