Marin, California Culinary Tour

Go to Cowgirl Cantina—a deli counter opened by Cowgirl Creamery—to put together a picnic for a hike through the national seashore. The converted barn that houses Cowgirl Creamery and Cantina is just a block off Highway 1. There’s an impressive cheese shop, and you can spy some cheese making through plate-glass windows. The menu changes daily but some standouts are the house-cured gravlax, fig-and-blue-cheese salad, seared day-boat tuna with fennel, assorted Fra’Mani charcuterie, duck pâté, and still-warm bread from Brick Maiden.

Address:
80 4th St.
Point Reyes Station, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-9335

For brinier bivalves than those harvested in Tomales Bay, head to Point Reyes National Seashore, where oysters are exposed to the cold Pacific waters.

Address:
17171 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
Inverness, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 669-1149

The most famous of the Marshall oyster purveyors sells unshucked oysters—but unfortunately they charge $5 per person merely to sit at a picnic table.

Address:
20215 Hwy. 1
Marshall, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-9218

This seafood shack perched on timber pylons offers a dining experience that’s low-key, the ultimate example of a certain kind of meal: unfussy, delicious, relaxed. It’s nominally a general store, and though they sell beer and wine—including some inspired selections from importer Kermit Lynch—they can’t legally serve it, though they will lend you a corkscrew. The store farms its own exquisite oysters, and prepares them three ways: raw, Rockefeller (piled with spinach and cheese), or, the local specialty, barbecued (grilled with house-made barbecue sauce).

Address:
19225 Hwy. 1
Marshall, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-1339

Just an hour north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Area restaurateur Pat Kuleto’s 1930’s-era fishing lodge looks straight out of an Edward Hopper painting with its rusted gas pumps and vintage Coca-Cola signs. Details that in lesser hands might seem cloying—shell-frame mirrors; mounted moose heads—fit naturally in this rustic corner of Marin. Our favorite of the 12 cabins is the Bandit’s Bungalow, a two-bedroom suite with handsome wainscoting and beadboard, wraparound windows, and a claw-foot tub.

Address:
23240 Hwy. 1
Marshall, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-1033

While the food is enjoyable, the dining room is exceptionally loud.

Address:
10000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
Olema, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-9559

There’s no way to see all of Point Reyes National Seashore in one day. An elk preserve is located to the north; steep peaks are covered with pines to the south; coastal highlands are blanketed with brush. Then there are the roads to the ocean through a lunar landscape of rolling hills and active pasture.

Address:
1 Bear Valley Rd.
Point Reyes Station, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 464-5100

Jumbo oysters are $16 for the dozen, seats at the tables don’t cost a penny, and the weekend crowds make it feel like a bivalve festival.

Address:
15479 Hwy. 1
Marshall, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-1242