D I N E W I S E WITH JASON WALSH
Nick’s Cove I f there’s any one thing North Bay foodies can count on these days, it might just be Nick’s Cove. Through prohibitions, recessions and fires, the iconic 93-year-old restaurant and cottages on Tomales Bay endures. Nick’s made headlines last January when a fire ravaged the boathouse at the end of the lengthy pier adjacent to the restaurant that serves as a popular post-meal stroll for guests. (The restaurant built and maintained the boathouse, though the pier itself is for public access.) Nick’s, which like the boathouse dates back to the 1930s, vowed to rebuild the iconic structure and replace the vintage heirlooms that were lost in the blaze. We visited the Marshall restaurant on a recent mid-summer weekend, finding the place abuzz with hungry cottage-dwellers just in from a warm day on the bay. Nick’s flies its bayside-lodge flag proudly—tables and chairs are solid wood, the stone fireplace is colossal, fishing rods and antlers perch overhead. For those still not convinced, a statue of a salty old angler stands guard by a giant metal dock cleat near a Depression-era green gas pump out on the front wooden walkway. Retro is all part of the charm at Nick’s Cove. Seated near a window overlooking Tomales Bay and nearby Hog Island, we started with a small plate of halibut crudo ($17), light and delightful thanks to capers, lemon and red onion livening up the delicate flavor of the raw flounder. We also shared a bowl of New England clam chowder ($12); Nick’s creamy varietal is thickened with potatoes and leeks, while smoked bacon adds a salty bent. The bowl has earned Nick’s local awards in recent best- soup contests, our server reported. Nick’s Cove dates back to the early 1930s when Croatian immigrants Nick and Frances Kojich purchased the bayside property, relocating (by barge) several structures to the parcel, including an old herring-curing building, which they renovated and reopened as a small food shack selling shrimp and crab cocktail to passing tourists on the newly paved State Route 1. When prohibition ended, Nick, who had also been a bootlegger, added a bar. Soon they began renting out some of their buildings as seaside cottages to West Marin’s burgeoning recreational fishing scene. Eventually the Kojiches retired and the restaurant changed hands several times over the years before falling out of operation entirely for a spell in the 1990s. Restaurant developer Pat Kuleto acquired the property in the late ‘90s, spending a small fortune on an eight-year-long renovation, only to reopen at the onset of
Ad
Marshall Manhattan
62 NorthBaybiz
September 2024
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online