"Step one, really, is getting to know our community," Justin Massei told The Ark in late June. A few weeks earlier, his Scottsdale-based group, Clive Collective, had taken over operations at the Bungalow Kitchen at 5 Main St.
That line works for all of lower Main Street this season. On Saturday, December 5, from 2 to 5 p.m., the Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce runs its Holiday Festival downtown. It will be the first big downtown afternoon since a year in which one waterfront restaurant changed operators and two downtown food businesses closed. The Chamber's list of participating shops is the most up-to-date map of the street you'll find.
The afternoon, storefront by storefront
The Chamber's program covers Main Street and Ark Row, and several of the activities happen at specific businesses. The Chamber marks the whole list "subject to change."
| Where | What's happening December 5 |
|---|---|
| Main Street | Toddler Train, canceled if it rains |
| Ark Row | Photos with Santa and roasted chestnuts |
| Servino's | Face painting |
| Highlow Larder, 32 Main St. | Holiday Sardine coloring contest with muralist and art teacher Laura Palmer |
| Ruth Livingston's studio, Ark Row | Bubbly, cookies and 10% off all sales |
| Christopher's | 20% off all holiday ornaments |
| Squalo Vino, 34 Main St. | Mulled wine special |
| Downtown | Hot chocolate and popcorn from the Belvedere-Tiburon Rotary, holiday crafts, and a holiday set from DJ Yuka Yu |
Gingerbread-house decorating is the one activity that needs advance planning. The Ranch runs it on December 5 at Malibu Farms and takes registration through its own website.
What lower Main lost and gained since last December
The 2025 festival ran on December 6. Here is what has changed downtown since then.
The Caviar Co. tasting room is closed. After more than five years on lower Main, the tasting room at 46A Main St. served its last guests on October 18, The Ark reported. Owner Petra Higby of Belvedere kept the final weekend open to walk-ins. Local delivery continues, and orders still go through thecaviarco.com.
Petite Left Bank closed in June. The restaurant at 1696 Tiburon Blvd. opened in 2022 and closed on June 22, when its parent company, Vine Hospitality, shut down its Bay Area restaurant group, according to the Marin Independent Journal. Some online directories still list it as open, so check before you send guests there.
The Bungalow Kitchen has a new operator and the same name. Michael Mina's Mina Group stepped back, and Clive Collective took over operations on June 1. The restaurant stayed open through the handoff and kept the Bungalow Kitchen name, according to The Ark and Eater SF. Clive Collective co-founder Justin Massei told The Ark the group was "not coming in to reinvent the place."
In his June 30 interview with The Ark, Massei described several plans:
- Weekday lunch, added once staffing allowed, possibly by mid-July or early August
- A fully revamped menu, still in development at the time
- Prices that would "come down a little bit"
- A community event where residents could meet the new team and try the new menu
- A broader goal of making the restaurant a place diners visit "multiple times a week"
Those were plans as of late June. If weekday lunch matters to you, call 5 Main St. before building a weekday around it.
The newest shop on the list is running the longest activity
Most of the festival is over by 5 p.m. The Toddler Train goes back in storage, Santa leaves Ark Row, and the chestnuts run out.
Highlow Larder is a cooking and home-goods shop that opened at 32 Main St. on May 31, 2025. Its founder and owner is Elizabeth Smith-Finders, The Ark reported that summer. For the festival, the shop is running a Holiday Sardine coloring contest with Laura Palmer, a muralist and art teacher, in five age groups:
- Under 5
- 5 to 7
- 8 to 10
- 10 to 12
- 12 and up
Winners get Swedish Fish of their choice, and their artwork hangs at Highlow Larder through the holiday season. No other activity on the Chamber's list outlasts the afternoon. It is the only one that gives families a reason to come back to a particular storefront later in December, and the shop running it has been open about a year and a half.
Squalo Vino is a few steps away at 34 Main St. The wine-and-beer tasting room opened at the beginning of October 2021, according to The Ark, and on December 5 it's pouring a mulled wine special. Ruth Livingston's studio is a residential interior design practice with custom furniture and a gallery showroom in the Ark Row Shopping Center. On festival day she's offering bubbly, cookies and 10% off.
Servino's is the long baseline
Servino's provides the face painting, and its history covers almost the whole modern life of downtown. Angelo and Kathryn Servino first opened at 114 Main St. in 1977 and moved to 9 Main in 1999. In 2023 they returned to the original Ark Row site, with the trattoria at 114 Main and an enoteca at 116, The Ark reported. Their sons Natale and Vittorio now help run it.
Servino's has spent nearly five decades downtown and moved twice. The Caviar Co. lasted a little over five years. Highlow Larder has been open about eighteen months. Lower Main Street has always turned over, and that's normal for a downtown this small. This December the turnover happens to be easy to see, because the old and new storefronts are side by side on one Chamber flyer.
Before December 5, and the details still to come
A few November dates are worth knowing:
- Saturday, November 21, 4 p.m. Guitarist Hiroya Tsukamoto plays Old St. Hilary's for the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society. Advance tickets are $25 general and $20 for seniors and youth. At the door, if seats remain, they're $30 and $25. Ticket sales run through TicketLeap, which adds a $1.50 service fee to a general ticket, bringing it to $26.50, plus a 3% online transaction fee on paid orders.
- November 26 and 27. The Belvedere Tiburon Library is closed for Thanksgiving. It closes again on December 25.
The Chamber's festival page doesn't yet give a tree-lighting time or announce a road closure for 2026. Last year, lower Main Street was closed to traffic from noon to 6 p.m. around the 2 to 5 p.m. festival, according to The Ark. If the town follows the same pattern, anyone driving downtown that Saturday afternoon should allow extra time. The festival is supported by the Tiburon Peninsula Foundation, and the Belvedere-Tiburon Rotary is serving the hot chocolate.
On December 5, start at Highlow Larder, where the kids can enter the coloring contest. Then head up Main for mulled wine at Squalo Vino and finish at Ark Row for Santa and chestnuts. That route passes most of lower Main's newer storefronts and its longest-running restaurant, plus 46A Main, where The Caviar Co. poured until October.
Downtown storefronts that open, close or change hands change how a downtown feels block by block. If you'd like to talk through what this year's changes on Main Street mean for a Tiburon home you own or are thinking about, Staal Real Estate is happy to walk through it with you. Schedule a consultation.
