A new beer garden and pizza spot has opened in Marin County with 5,000 square feet of outdoor space, close proximity to hiking trails on Mount Tamalpais, contactless ordering systems, and grand ambitions of being perfectly suited for a dining industry forever reshaped by a global pandemic.
The project is called the Junction, which is a reference to its location in the Tam Junction area between Tam Valley and Almonte, and it opened Wednesday. Tied into the beer garden’s operations is a new outpost of PizzaHacker, the San Francisco pie outfit located in Bernal Heights. PizzaHacker’s kitchen is on one side of the 3,000-square-foot indoor space, while the Junction’s beer offerings reside on the opposite side.
California beer brands serve as the foundation of the Junction’s drink offerings, including options from the Lost Abbey Brewing Co. in San Marcos, Ghost Town Brewing in Oakland, and both Henhouse and Cooperage brewing companies out of Santa Rosa.
PizzaHacker’s menu (pizzas $17 to $24) at the Junction plays the shop’s San Francisco’s hits with the the Top Shelf Margherita, the Ohio, which comes with pepperoni and pepperocini, and the Yo Vinny!, topped with Italian sausage and marinated onions. See the full menu here.
The Junction is the brainchild of Liz and Dez Fiedler, the former owners of Loving Cup, a Bay Area frozen yogurt outfit, and pizza maker Jeff Krupman of PizzaHacker. The project has been in the works since around 2018, right after the Fielders sold Loving Cup to cafe and bakery chain La Boulangerie.
“We live in Tam Valley, and since my husband is, like, obsessed with beer, we figured once we sold Loving Cup, our next thing would be beer,” said Liz Fielder, adding that they wanted to offer more options for families in the area. “The timing wound up being perfect that we find this location because the backyard was just so spacious.”
The beer garden’s outdoor space has room space for 150 guests even after applying social distancing protocols, Fielder said. When it comes to ordering, guests will be able to scan a QR code for an item, be it beer or pizza, at their table and then pay through mobile apps like Google Pay or Apple Pay.
Krupman came to be involved in the project after he and Fielder were connected through a plumber they mutually know. Krupman was moving from Oakland to Sausalito at the time, and he said he had long been obsessed with the idea of opening a pizzeria in the area where the Junction was located, so joining the venture worked out well — especially at the moment.
“It makes sense with pizza because it’s comfort food. It’s safe, hot and it gets baked and put into a box without getting touched,” he said.“You would almost think we designed this with coronavirus in mind.”
The Junction and PizzaHacker. 226 Shoreline Hwy., Mill Valley. Open Tuesday through Friday, 3-9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (PizzaHacker opens at 1 p.m. weekends). https://www.thejunc.com/. http://thepizzahacker.com/
July 30, 2020 at 05:15AM
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Huge new Mill Valley beer garden opens with pies from PizzaHacker - San Francisco Chronicle
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