The owner of two of West Marin’s most popular food destinations is opening an ambitious new seafood restaurant in Point Reyes Station, the product of a major local revitalization effort of legacy businesses.
Bar Auklet opens Thursday at 11180 Highway 1 in the former longtime home of Station House Cafe. Owner Shannon Gregory also runs roadside seafood destination the Marshall Store in Marshall, named one of the country’s best restaurants by the New York Times in 2021; the popular Route One Bakery & Kitchen in Tomales; and newer taco takeout spot Out the Door.
It’s a significant opening for the tiny gateway town to Point Reyes National Seashore, which has lost notable food establishments since the pandemic, including longtime California-Italian restaurant Osteria Stellina and the popular cheese shop Cow Girl Creamery, which closed in 2022 and was later replaced by food hall West Marin Culture Shop. Named for a seabird that inhabits the Farallon Islands, Bar Auklet came to be after tech founder and West Marin native Chris Hulls purchased several local properties, including the former Station House for $1.8 million.
The patio dining area at Bar Auklet in Point Reyes Station, which is taking over the former location of Station House Cafe, was revamped with edible flowers, herbs and fruit trees. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle)
“We’re trying to bring a new level of food and service to Point Reyes,” Gregory said. He acknowledged the role the Station House Cafe, with an expansive patio popular with both locals and tourists, and its owner, Sheryl Cahill, have long had in Point Reyes Station. The restaurant was located in Bar Auklet’s new space for more than 30 years before a rent hike prompted its move across the street to its original location in 2023. “Sheryl created a really beautiful courtyard and it was a big part of the town,” he said.
Hulls bought several shuttered legacy businesses in West Marin last year, including the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station, and placed them under the ownership of a nonprofit called the Good Luck Fund. He plans to sell shares from the businesses back to the community.
Gregory leases the Bar Auklet building from the nonprofit, which provided some funds toward its renovation. “All these small coastal towns are being debilitated by regulation or the cost of bringing things back to code. He’s been a great help.” Gregory said of Hulls.
Steamed Manila clams with salsa verde aioli at Bar Auklet, a new restaurant in Point Reyes Station. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle)
Anthony Paone, who was most recently executive chef at the now-closed Campanella in Sebastopol, is leading Bar Auklet’s kitchen. The menu highlights local seafood, including oysters from Tomales Bay Oyster Co. just up Highway 1, black cod, anchovies and Dungeness crab. Dishes throughout the menu touch the wood-fired grill, such as a mortadella skewer with hot honey ($8) and squid with lemon ketchup and fermented cayenne ($19). A larger plate of grilled mushrooms comes with polenta, savory granola and pickled huckleberry ($24). A few shareable entrees for two include a grilled ribeye with pickled ramp butter ($90) and a whole rock cod special ($66).
The desserts ($14) also celebrate ingredients native to coastal California, such as huckleberry kuchen (a German-style cake topped with seasonal fruit) with creme anglaise and doughnuts with seaweed-lemon sugar.
Wylie Price Design incorporated wood elements in Bar Auklet’s main dining area, with exposed rafters and a family-style table made of Douglas fir. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle)
Wylie Price Design, the firm that also designed State Bird Provisions, the Progress, Ramen Shop and other acclaimed Bay Area restaurants, led the building’s remodel. The design incorporates warm wood elements in oversize sliding doors, exposed rafters and a large dining table made from a single slab of Douglas fir. The restaurant’s spacious patio, known for its vine-covered pergolas, had to be completely gutted, Gregory said. He worked with Talc Studio, a local landscape design firm, to bring in edible flowers, herbs and fruit trees – decorative elements that also provide ingredients for the kitchen.
Sommelier Robert Adams, who was previously a hospitality lead at Littorai Wines in Sebastopol and wine director at Nopa in San Francisco, created a beverage list that leans heavily on European wines, plus some from California, such as a Littorai Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. There are also a handful of vermouth-based cocktails, housemade sodas and craft beers from Japan, Napa and Santa Rosa.
This is the fourth Bay Area restaurant for Gregory, an Australia native who took over the historic Marshall Store in 2006; his sister, Heidi Gregory, owns the Tomales Bay Oyster Co., which provides oysters to the establishment. In 2020, he opened Route One, which became a popular stop for passing drivers, bicyclists and motorcycle clubs. Former Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho lauded the bakery’s made-from-scratch baked goods, pizza and “graceful balance between punching above its weight and meeting people where they’re at.”
Point Reyes Station is still in the midst of upheaval after an historic deal announced last year between the National Park Service, environmental groups and ranchers to remove 10 meat and dairy ranches and their employees from Point Reyes National Seashore. With the loss of those ranches, tourism is the main business in town, as the park attracts 2.5 million visitors a year, Gregory said. “(It) really does support us. It helps us provide jobs year-round.”
Bar Auklet. 11180 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station. barauklet.com
Subscribe
There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at This tiny Marin town is getting an ambitious new seafood restaurant.
Dining and Cooking