Before moving to Brentwood, my wife lived in Mill Valley. We still go up there now and then. Mill Valley is a lot like Brentwood, really – a very nice suburb, with lots of privacy, not too far from the big city (San Francisco).
I sometimes call Mill Valley “Brentwood North” – and Brentwood, “Mill Valley South.”
We were in Mill Valley last weekend and we were pleasantly surprised to see that an entire block of a major street in downtown Mill Valley had been completely closed down in order to make room for lots of socially distanced tables, arranged for outdoor dining.
There were plenty of space heaters up and down the rows of tables; there was a “beer garden” feel to this. There are several restaurants in the immediate vicinity, so I’m guessing one can order from any of their menus (I’m not 100 percent sure about that; maybe it was just one restaurant).
There was quite a crowd – maybe 100 people – and everyone seemed to be having a great time. It almost looked weird; I hadn’t seen so many people gathered in one outdoor place like this in a very long time.
As we have all seen, several restaurants in Brentwood are setting up tables and chairs on sidewalks. It’s a nice development and I hope this trend persists long after COVID is gone.
But there still isn’t the “crowd” dynamic I witnessed in Mill Valley, because there is no one big central place where everyone can gather in Brentwood. It’s a few tables here and a few tables there.
We do have the farmers market, which causes Gretna Green between Montana and San Vicente to close down on Sundays. And look at what a big success that has been. But that’s daytime, not nighttime. It’s too early for drinks (for most of us, anyway).
Inspired by what I saw in Mill Valley, I took a long walk around Brentwood and scouted out places where lots and lots of outdoor tables could be placed. Maybe could try this on a Saturday night one time and see what happens. Maybe 5% of the proceeds go toward our firefighters, police, or the Brentwood Community Council, or some other good cause.
Here is what I found.
Gretna Green, where the farmers market takes place, could work. There is plenty of room Nobody drives that little stretch at night. But it’s not close to restaurants. Quite a delivery system would need to be set up.
The parking lot where Chin Chin’s is located is pretty big, but eliminating that outdoor parking might create a problem. There is parking down below this structure, but not that much. The same issue would exist at the Town & Country shopping area.
The parking lot behind the old Duttons Bookstore – the Charlie Munger property – is currently completely locked up. But it’s a very big parking lot with plenty of room for food delivery vehicles to make drop-offs and turn around.
Hell, we could set up a drive-in movie theater there if we erected a big white board on the back of the Duttons building. We could use that as a movie screen.
The parking lot at Flair Cleaners at Barrington and San Vicente is kind of small, but centrally located.
Darlington Ave., just south of San Vicente – where The Tavern and Palmeri face each other – could easily be closed down. There is plenty of room there.
