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Sir and Star

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Coordinates: 38°02′27″N 122°47′16″W / 38.040744°N 122.787743°W / 38.040744; -122.787743
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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Neutrality (talk | contribs) at 20:43, 24 June 2020 (remove poor/unreliable source and also vague/puffery). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Sir and Star
The Olema (right) before being repainted from bright white to near black by its current owners
Map
Sir and Star is located in California
Sir and Star
Location within California
Sir and Star is located in the United States
Sir and Star
Sir and Star (the United States)
Restaurant information
Previous owner(s)Dana and Jennifer Sulprizio
Head chefDaniel DeLong
ChefMargaret Gradé
Food typeFarm to table
Dress codeCasual
Rating4 stars
Coordinates38°02′27″N 122°47′16″W / 38.040744°N 122.787743°W / 38.040744; -122.787743
Seating capacity85
ReservationsYes
Other locationsManka's Inverness Lodge, Inverness, California
Other informationTelephone: (415) 663-1034
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
The Olema
Map
General information
Address10,000 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
Town or cityOlema, California 94950
Country
OpeningJuly 4, 1876 (1876-07-04)
OwnerGradé and DeLong
Technical details
Floor count2
Other information
Number of rooms8
Number of restaurants1
ParkingOn site

Sir and Star is a restaurant founded in 2012. It is located in The Olema, a historic restaurant and inn built in 1876. The restaurant is at the corner of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Star Route One in Olema, California. Olema is located in West Marin County 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) from the Bear Valley portal to the Point Reyes National Seashore. Olema is similar to a one-horse town as it only contains one other restaurant, a lodge, a few bed and breakfast inns, a recreational vehicle (RV) resort with hookups and a campground, a few shops, and the Hindui branch retreat for their Vedanta Society, all within walking distance of the inn.

Early days

The road outside the inn had large earthquake-caused fissures in 1906.

The building was constructed by the area's original Spanish land grantee, Rafael Garcia, in 1876 as part of a 9,000-acre (3,600 ha) land grant from Mexico. John Nelson, the stage coach company owner that ran a stage from Olema to San Rafael, won the inn from Felix Garcia, Rafael's son, in a game of chance. The Nelsons owned the inn for three generations thereafter. The inn was a popular place of respite for local workers.[1][2]

The name Olema has significant historical heritage originating from the over 125 adjacent Miwok Indian villages. In the Miwok language, Olemaloke roughly translates to "little coyote".[3]

During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake the road near the inn was heavily damaged. In 1910 Henry Fielding Reid of the State Earthquake Investigative Commission opined that Olema was the epicenter of the earthquake. This was later disproved, and the epicenter was found to be about 50 miles north of San Francisco.[4][5] The inn survived the earthquake.

Current use

The Olema Ranch barn is adjacent to the inn

In 2006 the inn and restaurant went on the market for US$3.6 million.[2]

In 2010 the Olema Inn was purchased by chefs Daniel DeLong and Margaret Gradé, repainted from bright white to nearly black, and rechristened as Sir and Star at The Olema.[6] Sir and Star is a portmanteau of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Star Route One.

Biography of current owners

Until 1999 Chef DeLong worked at Elroy's, Bix, and Stars restaurants in San Francisco. Gradé was a neuropsychologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At this point the entwined pair purchased Manka's Inverness Lodge in Inverness which was a former 1918 hunting lodge that was converted to a guest lodge with restaurant years prior to their purchase. Alice Waters a pioneer in the California cuisine movement and the founder of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley mentored Gradé during this time of new beginnings and they remain good friends. Manka's was one of the 50-best hotel restaurants in the U.S. in 2003 according to Food & Wine magazine. The Zagat survey for 2007 ranked it in the top-5 of their top-30. Manka's is known as a quiet hideaway even for celebrities. Prince Charles of England (the Prince of Wales) and his new wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, previously Camilla Parker Bowles, took over the entire main lodge at Manka's during their West Marin tour of local farmers and ranchers learning the ropes of farm-to-table foraging. They were escorted on their tour by Waters and Gradé. A few months later the main lodge that they stayed in and its attached restaurant burned to the ground during a severe winter windstorm.[7][8] Gradé and DeLong live in Inverness and have twins born in 2008.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Olema California | West Marin Point Reyes Chamber of Commerce | Point Reyes National Seashore | Marin Coast Vistors [sic] Guide". PointReyes.org. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Something Different: The Olema Inn / Historic and haunted inn / Popular Marin County restaurant and lodgings available for $3.3 million". SFGate. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  3. ^ "Olema". marinmagazine.com. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  4. ^ Henry Fielding Reid (1 January 2006). Carol S. Prentice; Judith G. Scotchmoor; Eldridge M. Moores; Jon P. Kiland (eds.). 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Centennial Field Guides: Field Trips Associated with the 100th Anniversary Conference, 18-23 April 2006, San Francisco, California. Geological Society of America. pp. 162–. doi:10.1130/0-8137-0007-8. ISBN 978-0-8137-0007-6. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  5. ^ Andrew C. Lawson; Henry Fielding Reid; Grove Karl Gilbert; J.C. Branner; A.O Leuschner; George Davidson; Charles Burkhalter; W.W. Campbell; H.W. Fairbank; H.O. Wood; J.F. Hayford; A.L. Baldwin; F. Omori; R.S. Holway; A.S. Eakle; R. Crandall; G.F. Hoffman; G.A.Warring; E. Hughes; F.J. Rogers; A. Baird; Many others (1910). "The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigative Commission" (PDF). Carnegie Institution of Washington. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Sir and Star at Olema Inn review". SFGate. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  7. ^ "80 years of history at Manka's in ashes". marinij.com. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  8. ^ "Fire levels Manka's, revered Inverness restaurant and inn". SFGate. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  9. ^ "The Inside Scoop: Burglars hit La Folie". SFGate. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
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