According to the Press Democrat, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant opened its doors at Marin Country Mart on December 9, 2025, and did not hold a ribbon cutting or press event. The 900-square-foot shop across from Rustic Bakery quietly sold the same French and Italian bottles the Berkeley original has stocked since 1972. After eight months of operation, it will hold its grand-opening celebration in August.
The opening of a second location in Larkspur tells you more about where the town is headed than any single restaurant opening could. Kermit Lynch had gone fifty-three years without a second location. When the company finally expanded beyond its original Berkeley storefront, it chose Larkspur, not Napa, not the Ferry Building, not anywhere in San Francisco proper. Its grand-opening celebration is scheduled for one week before the town's Wine Stroll, putting two wine-focused events on consecutive Saturdays in August.
A Grand Opening Eight Months After Opening
The Kermit Lynch grand opening lands Saturday, August 22, from 4 to 7 p.m., at 1003 Larkspur Landing Circle inside the Mart. Hog Island Oyster Co. is running the raw bar. Souvla and Rustic Bakery are handling food. A vinyl set from DJ Mara Hruby carries the evening into golden hour. The shop's own invitation puts it plainly: they have been open since December and are only now ready to celebrate.
The eight-month gap between opening and celebration gives the event a different feel from a launch-week debut. The design team, BCV Architecture and Interiors alongside Los Angeles-based Martha Mulholland Interior Design, built the space around reclaimed limestone counters sourced from the southern Rhône, the kind of detail meant to be discovered slowly rather than unveiled all at once. President Dixon Brooke described the goal for the space as helping visitors dive into "the endless pleasures of French and Italian wine." A shop built on that premise does not need a launch week. It needs regulars.
The town's Wine Stroll follows one week later.
The Stroll That Already Owns The Date
The Larkspur Chamber of Commerce runs its 14th Annual Downtown Larkspur Wine Stroll on Saturday, August 29, also from 4 to 7 p.m., along Magnolia Avenue and the Lark Creek Shops. This is not a new event finding its footing. It is a fourteen-year fixture that funds the Chamber's work for the rest of the year, and this edition adds a second annual Kid Zone run by Andrew's Camps, a signal that the Chamber is trying to hold onto families as much as it courts wine drinkers. General admission runs $71.21 as of this month's listing on Visit Marin, with entry free for anyone 18 and under.
Put the two events side by side and the overlap is hard to miss.
| Kermit Lynch Grand Opening | Downtown Wine Stroll | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, August 22 | Saturday, August 29 |
| Time | 4 to 7 p.m. | 4 to 7 p.m. |
| Location | Marin Country Mart | Magnolia Avenue and Lark Creek Shops |
| Food | Hog Island Oyster Co., Souvla, Rustic Bakery | Local restaurants and food vendors |
| Host | Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant | Larkspur Chamber of Commerce |
Same window, same day of the week, one week apart. The events share a 4-to-7 p.m. time slot, but take place on consecutive Saturdays. For residents, that means two Saturdays that now function as a matched pair.
What Fills The Weekends In Between
The two big Saturdays are the headline, but they are not the whole month. Marin Country Mart runs its Farmers' Market every Saturday through August 29, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with vendors including Alexandre Family Farm, Anna's Seafood, and Frog Hollow Farm, plus live music for adults and a dedicated program for kids starting at 9:30 a.m. Sunday Lunch at the Food Trucks continues at the Mart through August 30, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine, with live music built into the schedule as well.
Downtown, Magnolia Avenue has its own quieter additions. Tavola Rustica, a San Francisco-based Cal-Italian kitchen, has recently taken over the avenue's sunny indoor-outdoor space, joining longtime anchors Restaurant Picco and Rustic Bakery as reasons to eat downtown before or after a Mart trip. A few doors down sits the Silver Peso, a bar that has occupied the same Magnolia Avenue building since it was a blacksmith shop in 1905 and became a tavern after a returning World War II veteran bought it, according to local legend, with a pocket full of silver pesos. That contrast, a century-old dive bar and a wine shop with limestone imported from the Rhône, sitting a few blocks apart, is a fair snapshot of what downtown and the Mart each bring to the table.
Why The Sequencing Matters If You Already Live Here
None of this changes what Larkspur is. It changes which nights are worth clearing. If wine is the draw, August 22 gets you the newer, quieter experience: a single retailer's celebration, walkable within the Mart, with a curated food lineup and room to actually talk to the people pouring. August 29 gets you the bigger, louder version: a fourteen-year tradition spread across two blocks of Magnolia Avenue, ticketed, with a Kid Zone if you are bringing the family along.
The events take place on consecutive Saturdays, so they cannot be combined into one evening. Treat them as two separate outings a week apart, and plan the babysitter or the parking accordingly.
The bigger takeaway is what it says about the town's direction. Kermit Lynch’s grand-opening celebration falls one week before the Wine Stroll. Larkspur is being treated, by at least one outside retailer, as a wine destination in its own right, not just a stop between San Francisco and the rest of Marin. For anyone who already calls this town home, that is worth noticing even if you never buy a bottle.
If you are weighing what that kind of attention does to property values on either side of town, from the Mart-adjacent streets to the Magnolia Avenue corridor, that is a conversation Eric Schmitt has with Larkspur homeowners regularly. Reach out anytime you want a local read on what these changes mean for your street specifically.
