Caledonia Street gets new businesses and new plans like any other street. This year the newcomers have mostly been put together from things the street already had. The restaurant at 37 Caledonia reopened with the same chef and much of the same menu. The October street festival is named as a tribute to the old Caledonia St. fair. The public ramp at the foot of Turney Street has a design to rebuild what has been there for decades. And the council's summer parking vote was about getting back spaces a state law would have taken away.
Sushi Ran owner Yoshi Tome told the City Council in July that "Caledonia Street is going through a huge transition in terms of businesses." That's true. Each piece of this fall's change also has a clear model in the street's own past, and that explains why it looks the way it does.
37 Caledonia Kept Its Kitchen and Changed Its Clock
Elizabeth Nebot owned Osteria Divino for 20 years. The restaurant closed earlier in 2026. Her friend Jaxton Funk took it over. He's a San Francisco bartender and bar manager, and his partner is Johnny "Love" Metheny, who owns the Blue Light and Toy Soldier in San Francisco. The Marin Independent Journal reported that they planned to open it as Notte Divino on July 24.
"I walked past it every day and saw firsthand how much it meant to the neighborhood," Funk told the paper. "The goal was never to erase what people loved."
The kitchen backs that up. Chef Yovani Castillo cooked in the Osteria Divino kitchen for 12 years, and he's back. The house-made focaccia with dipping oil and the oven-baked fennel with Parmigiano-Reggiano are still on the menu. So are the in-house gnocchi, the bucatini with lamb sausage in spicy tomato sauce and the Tuscan seafood soup. The new parts come from the bar. The cocktails are now craft drinks, like an Italian Sour topped with Lambrusco and the Serpente & Furore, made with green Chartreuse, gin and elderflower. The wine list leans toward southern Italian varietals.
Notte Divino is open now. Its reservation page shows diner reviews from September 18 and lists these hours:
- Tuesday and Wednesday: 5 to 11 p.m.
- Thursday: 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
- Friday and Saturday: 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
- Sunday: 5 p.m. to midnight
- Monday: not listed
There's live music Friday and Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. and solo piano on Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m., with no cover. The music also continues something older. Funk said they want to keep the ties Nebot built with the jazz community, and several of her regular performers were expected back for weekend shows. The big change at 37 Caledonia is how late it stays open. A 2 a.m. close on weekends gives the street a later address than it has had.
October 17 Revives an Older Fair
The City is open about where A Toast to Sausalito comes from. Its event page describes the festival as "paying homage to the old Caledonia St. fair and Taste of Sausalito Events of years past." City Parks and Recreation and the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce put it on. It runs Saturday, October 17, from 1 to 5 p.m. on Caledonia between Pine and Bee streets. Entry is free. Only 1,000 tasting wristbands are sold, and the Caledonia Merchants Association runs a booth that sells cocktails, beer and wine by the drink.
If you live nearby, the closures start well before the music. The City's published schedule:
- Friday, October 16, 11 a.m.: Locust Street between Caledonia and Bonita closes to through traffic so the stage can go up.
- Saturday, October 17, 6 a.m.: Caledonia closes from Johnson to Bee. Litho, Turney and Pine close to through traffic from Bridgeway to Bonita.
- Saturday, October 17, 8 p.m.: All closures end, including Locust.
The City asks people to leave dogs at home because of the crowds, the glass and the food booths. It runs a free shuttle between the Ferry Plaza and the event, and it puts bike racks next to the wristband booth at Johnson and Caledonia. Sausalito residents 60 and older can get a free ride from CARSS volunteers at 415-944-5474.
That list includes Turney Street. On festival day it's just one of the closed cross streets. The rest of the year, it runs down to one of the few places in town where the public can get a boat into Richardson Bay.
The Foot of Turney Gets Its Ramp Back on Paper
On September 15, the City Council voted unanimously for a design to rebuild the Turney Street boat ramp and docks. The Independent Journal described the site as "a rare public access point to Richardson Bay." It was built decades ago and has become run down, apart from a recently added gangway to the floating docks.
The approved plan replaces the concrete ramp and extends it into the bay, and it replaces the weathered bulkhead. It also splits the waterfront by type of boat:
- North side: powerboats. "It's going to be a launch that could appeal to fishermen, people with small, motorized, shallow drafted vessels," Mayor Steven Woodside said.
- In front of Joinery: docks for up to 16 small, shallow boats where old piers and pontoons sit now, reached by a new 80-foot gangway that follows the ramp.
- Behind Salito's: a second gangway to docks for about a dozen small dinghies.
- South side: hand-powered craft, with access for kayaks, paddleboards and swimmers.
Sailboats with deep keels won't be able to use it. That part of Richardson Bay is shallow, and dredging it would require federal permits. Both restaurants that frame the new docks are open now. Joinery, the beer hall and rotisserie at 300 Turney Street, lists daily hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Salito's, at 1200 Bridgeway, lists noon to 8 p.m. daily.
| Phase | Timing, per the City's schedule |
|---|---|
| Engineering | 2026 |
| Funding and state and federal permits | 2027 |
| Construction | 2028 |
| Early cost estimate | $3.1 million |
The project has moved slowly before. A state Fish and Wildlife boating-access grant of $170,000 arrived in late 2024, and the City added $104,000 from its Tidelands Fund. Last winter the City sought a private partner to help pay for construction in exchange for favorable lease terms. It picked a preferred partner in the spring, but staff said the project stalled after that. The September vote gives the effort a design and a schedule it didn't have before.
The Corners Are Approved, the Paint Is Pending
The fourth restoration concerns the curb. Assembly Bill 413, a 2023 pedestrian-safety law, requires parking to be removed within 20 feet of crosswalks or within 15 feet of curb extensions. On Caledonia and its side streets, that could have meant losing 21 spaces on a mixed commercial and residential corridor that was already short on parking.
The law lets cities shrink the red curb if they add other safety measures, such as extending sidewalk corners into intersections. SWA Group and the City's traffic consultant, Parametrix, used that provision to design a plan that adds curb extensions and restripes Caledonia with slightly shorter spaces. Staff estimated about 104 spaces on the street under that plan, which replaces 18 of the 21 spaces the law would have removed. Adding perpendicular parking along one side of Bee, Litho, Locust and Turney could bring 40 or more spaces. Residents would keep parking free, and visitors would pay at new side-street meters.
"Caledonia Street is going through a huge transition in terms of businesses. I would also urge you to consider extending the period of time in which our visitors can park." Yoshi Tome, owner and chef of Sushi Ran, at the July council meeting
Adam Driver, founder of Driver's Market and Deli, backed the plan but asked that delivery trucks still be able to reach the street. The council approved it unanimously on July 21. The minutes also send the perpendicular-parking pilot back for more work: design with the consultants, consultation with affected residents and businesses, a community meeting, and a return to the council for approval before anything is built. Neither the September 1 nor the September 15 council agenda listed a Caledonia parking item. As of early October, no published notice says which side street will host the pilot or when the striping will start.
So the street itself is about where the Turney ramp is. Both plans are approved and neither has been built. The festival on October 17 and the late kitchen at 37 Caledonia are already here.
Following a street like Caledonia closely, from who took over a kitchen to which corner gets painted next, is how Scott Woods keeps track of Marin's waterfront towns. If you own near Caledonia or the foot of Turney and want to talk about how these changes affect your property, Scott would be glad to start that conversation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
