Three food businesses have opened at Strawberry Village since August. Two of them account for roughly 190 counted seats before any outdoor tables, in a center long defined by its Safeway, its banks and a quick stop on the way home. The smallest of the three has four indoor tables and counts on the shared plaza for the rest of its seating. That shows how the center works now. The new tenants were sized on the assumption that the open space outside their doors would hold people. EDENS rebuilt that space for exactly that purpose before any of them arrived.
The Seat Count Changed Before the Store Count Did
Count the chairs and the shift is plain. According to the Marin Independent Journal's August report, Tartine Mill Valley has indoor-outdoor seating for 120 guests. Cholita Linda seats about 70 indoors, with more tables outside. Lulu Dae's, which the IJ covered in October, has four tables inside, extra seating in the shopping plaza and a pickup window for online orders.
- Tartine: seating for 120, indoors and out, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, at 800 Redwood Highway Frontage Road, Suite 125
- Cholita Linda: about 70 seats indoors plus outdoor tables, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, at Suite 801
- Lulu Dae's: four tables indoors, with the plaza beyond, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, at 802 Strawberry Village
Between them, the three keep a table open somewhere in the center from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., every day of the week.
A Plaza Rebuilt Before the Tenants Arrived
Strawberry Village has been an open-air center in Mill Valley since 1964. EDENS, the shopping center operator, bought it in 2022. Its 2023 announcement laid out the plan: a new color palette, lighting, landscaping, outdoor seating, public art, new signage, and a reimagined central plaza with green space.
The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce later described the finished plaza as a place with outdoor seating, used for live music, community events or simply relaxing. It also reported three new public art pieces commissioned from local women artists across the 175,385-square-foot property. Retail came in alongside that work. The same Chamber item lists Bluemercury, CP Shades, Spot Pet Care, Modern Animal and Citizens Bank as additions.
Each of the 2026 food openings comes with outdoor tables or plaza seating as part of its own room count.
Tartine Came Back to the Town Where It Started
Tartine's best-known story begins in San Francisco's Mission District. The bakers behind it worked in Mill Valley first. The Marin IJ traces the history. Chad Robertson baked the bread and Elisabeth Prueitt made the pastry at Bay Village Bakery in Point Reyes Station starting in 1995, in the cottage that now houses Brickmaiden Breads. They moved the bakery to downtown Mill Valley in 1999 and closed it in early 2002 to open the first Tartine across the bridge. The Mill Valley cafe opened in August, nearly 25 years after Bay Village closed.
"Strawberry Village is an ideal home for us, a neighborhood gathering place with a strong sense of community," Tartine CEO Dar Vasseghi said in a press release quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.
What comes out of the Mill Valley kitchen is more specific than the brand name suggests. The bread is baked in San Francisco, and the pastries, cakes and savory dishes are made on site. Breakfast includes a cheddar and herb omelet, a seasonal vegetarian quiche, and a soft-scramble tartine with labneh, white cheddar, smoked trout roe and horseradish. Lunch runs to a spiced turkey club with pickle mayo and a double grass-fed smash burger with fennel confit on a sweet potato bun. The case holds morning buns, bread pudding, croissants and cookies, and the drinks list includes a morning bun latte and Valrhona hot chocolate.
San Francisco's Studio BBA designed the room around floor-to-ceiling windows, blond wood tables and greenery. Those windows open the room onto the outdoor seating that makes up part of its 120 seats.
The return lands in a town with a long bakery record. The Chamber's January account reported that in years of polling locals about vacant storefronts, a bakery has always been at or near the top of the wish list. Downtown has Mill Valley Baking Co. on East Blithedale, Le Marais Bakery, Madrona Bakery and Waldscraft Artisan Bakery at 31 Sunnyside. Tartine adds a bakery seating 120 on the Strawberry side of town, beside a plaza.
Across the Roadway, a Later Clock
Tartine closes at 4 p.m. Cholita Linda, directly across the roadway, stays open until 9. This is the sixth Cholita Linda and the first in Marin. Owners Vanessa Chavez and Murat Sozeri built the following at Oakland's Jack London Square farmers market starting in 2008, then opened locations in Temescal, Berkeley, Alameda, Walnut Creek and San Francisco's Ferry Building.
Chavez explained to the Marin IJ why the couple chose Strawberry Village:
"We love this area, the beauty, the markets, and were drawn to it. From our experience, it's a community that values good food, and there are lots of small businesses that do things really well."
The menu draws on her family: a mother from Peru, and a father who is Cuban and Mexican. The tacos come with fried Baja fish, carnitas, carne asada, pollo al pastor or organic tofu. Plates include pescado frito with salsa criolla, and picadillo made with Niman Ranch beef. There is a Cubano, and aguas frescas are pressed in-house. Inside, tiled rooflines and shuttered windows make parts of the interior look like building facades, with papel picado and string lights crossing the high ceiling.
That later closing time matters to how the center works. Once Tartine closes, Cholita Linda keeps the tables near the plaza in use into the evening.
The Smallest Room Leans Hardest on the Plaza
Lulu Dae's took over a familiar spot. The space was home to Woody's Yogurt Place for more than two decades until it closed in January 2020, and later to Noble Cow Creamery. The new owners put in new flooring, tile, countertops and lighting. In October, a San Francisco artist was working on a mural of Northern California images, including Mount Tamalpais, poppies and the Grateful Dead.
This is the first Marin venture for Duncan Ley, who lives in Mill Valley, and his business partner Lucia Camarda. Both have spent nearly 20 years opening and running restaurants and bars in San Francisco. Their third co-founder, Reza Morvari, co-owns San Francisco's Bowl'd Acai. The menu covers acai bowls, smoothies made with house-made almond milk, an Ahi Dae poke bowl, Spam musubi and bone broth served in a coffee cup. The soft serve, made by Patrick Keshishian on an organic whole milk base, comes in chocolate, peanut butter and fior di panna.
With four tables inside, most of the seating for a cone or a bowl is the shared plaza outside the door. EDENS built the plaza to work as seating for shops like this one.
Tuesdays Put a Market in the Same Square
On Tuesdays the plaza becomes a market too. EDENS started the Strawberry Village farmers market on June 13, 2023, with Marin Community Farmers Markets. The County of Marin's list of certified markets shows it running Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., open all year. The next two markets fall on Tuesday, Nov. 17, and Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Those market hours fall within the hours when all three food tenants are open. A late-morning market run can end at Tartine, at Cholita Linda once it opens at 11, or with a cup of soft serve at Lulu Dae's.
The center has non-food additions this fall as well. Ernesta, a custom-size rug company, opened its first Northern California showroom at Suite 703. According to Hoodline, it is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Like the rest of the 2026 openings, it stays open well past a quick grocery run.
When the Strawberry side of Mill Valley gains a new place to sit down, the streets around it feel the change. If you're curious how Strawberry Village's new season fits the area you call home, or the one you're thinking about, McArthur Love Team is happy to talk it over, coffee from Tartine optional.
