"It looks and feels exactly the same," Max Perry told the Marin Independent Journal this spring, just before the Silver Peso reopened at 450 Magnolia Avenue. He meant it as a promise. The bar's new floors, new bar siding, fresh paint, and upgraded bathrooms were meant to leave the place looking the way it always had.
That sentence also fits this year on Magnolia Avenue. Downtown Larkspur's changes in 2026 have come in small, careful pieces: a refreshed landmark bar, a children's bookshop barely wider than a doorway, and a couple of new boutiques. Meanwhile the largest downtown property, the former Lucky grocery at 570 Magnolia, has been empty since 2023. The street's renewal is real, and it is all happening at the scale of a single storefront.
A bookshop sized for the people it serves
The smallest new arrival is also the clearest example. Stef Tousignant opened the Phoenix Used Bookshop at 501 Magnolia Ave. this summer. It sells used books for children and teens, and its motto is "books build community." The space is 5 feet across.
Tousignant first planned a used bookstore for adults and had about 15,000 adult books in storage. When she saw the narrow storefront, she changed the plan. With a background in childhood development, she decided the space was right for kids. "Developmentally, like, it makes sense for a kid to be in here, it's a kid's size," she told the IJ. She called it "the first store," which suggests she may have more in mind.
The space shaped the business here, the reverse of the usual order. That pattern shows up across downtown this year.
The Silver Peso, carried forward
The Silver Peso is in a building that opened in 1905 as a blacksmith shop. Larkspur couple Tommy and Shannon Lamanna bought the building in late 2024 and helped pay for the structural and cosmetic work. Early in 2026, Max Perry of Corte Madera and Conor Flaherty of Tiburon, managing partners at Sam's Anchor Cafe, took over the lease from Rebel Lee. Lee had tended bar there for more than a decade before buying the business in 2015.
The grand reopening was set for a Saturday at noon, a few days after the IJ's May 26 story. The Humble Cheeseburger food truck was booked to park outside. Most of the updates are easy to miss. There are new pool tables, better televisions, and a refurbished shuffleboard table. New taps pour IPAs and Kölsch-style beers, and a chalkboard menu lists margaritas, negronis, and martinis. Perry said the team plans to keep bringing in food vendors for events and on weekends. The bar is open noon to 2 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends, and it has a website at silverpesomarin.com.
New operators came in, and the bar's character stayed the same. That's the same move as the bookshop, applied to a place more than a century old.
Where the new and renewed sit
Plotted by address, this year's changes sit mostly in the stretch of downtown people already walk, with established places between them.
| Address | Business | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 274 Magnolia Ave. | Shoppe Fifteen | Home goods and gift shop, in Marin Magazine's June 2026 roundup of new shops |
| 450 Magnolia Ave. | Silver Peso | Reopened under new operators after a refresh |
| 482 Magnolia Ave. | Two Birds | Second location of a boutique that spent 14 years in Noe Valley |
| 501 Magnolia Ave. | Phoenix Used Bookshop | Opened in 2026, used books for children and teens |
| 570 Magnolia Ave. | Former Lucky | Vacant since 2023 |
| 1137 Magnolia Ave. | Dog grooming business | Use permit approved September 8, 2026 |
The new businesses fill in around long-running ones. Perry's on Magnolia is at 234 Magnolia, and Tavola Rustica serves Cal-Italian food in an indoor-outdoor space at 286. Farther north, at 1110 Magnolia, Larkspur resident Adnan Abudaken and co-owner Tony Martinez run Internos Wine & Beer Bar. Abudaken previously ran a bar of the same name in San Francisco.
The 1137 Magnolia entry is a permit approval, not a confirmed opening. The Planning Commission approved a use permit for a dog-grooming business there after a September 8 hearing. The building also houses Rustic Bakery and Gravity Salon, and the application proposes no exterior changes. The city filing lists no business name or opening date. The approval is good for two years.
The 2 acres at 570
Each change above involves one storefront at a time. The one gap on the street that small steps can't fix is about 2 acres.
The Lucky at 570 Magnolia Ave. closed in 2023 after about 40 years. Albertsons owns the building, and Save Mart Companies ran the store. The building has 26,344 square feet on about 2 acres and is listed for sale with no asking price, inviting the "best offer." For comparison, the Phoenix Used Bookshop is 5 feet wide.
The site is zoned "transitional downtown," so it could become housing, commercial space, or other uses. The city has also written an incentive into its housing element: faster approvals for a developer whose project includes a grocery store. Mayor Stephanie Andre explained the limits on what the city can do:
"The Lucky's parcel is a privately owned parcel, so the government only has so many levers it can do. We can't really dictate what goes in that space, although we can try to use the tools we can to encourage a market."
Andre also said there have been talks with grocery operators about opening in other locations. She didn't give details because the discussions are ongoing.
The other tool under discussion is a tax on properties left vacant for long periods. Resident Conrad Gann supports the idea and has sent the city his own suggestions for how it could work. "Having a good downtown where you can buy food is such a basic property of a well-run town," he told the IJ. A June 17 report to the City Council noted that a special parcel tax needs two-thirds voter approval. It set August 7, 2026 as the deadline to place a measure on the November 2026 ballot. In the latest reporting we found, from July 24, City Manager Dan Schwarz said staff were still working out what a tax might look like and would bring it back to the council for a workshop. He added that the city was considering other ways to deal with vacant buildings. We found no public update since then on whether that workshop took place or what the council decided.
The piece of the street residents can shape now
The city can't choose a tenant for 570. It does control the road in front of it, and it is collecting public input on that road right now.
The Magnolia Avenue Corridor Study covers Magnolia from Doherty Drive to Larkspur's southern city limit, which includes most of the addresses above. The city is holding a community workshop tonight:
- When: Tuesday, October 6, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
- Where: Larkspur Library, 10 Rose Lane
- What's presented: recent studies of traffic speeds, crash data, and related findings
- What the city wants: residents' priorities for the corridor, shared in person or through an online survey linked by QR code on the city's workshop flyer
For anyone who can't attend, the survey is the way to weigh in. How fast cars move past the Silver Peso, and whether it feels easy to walk from Two Birds to the bookshop, are corridor questions. They're also the kind of thing a 5-foot-wide shop depends on.
Down the road at Marin Country Mart, the honor-system pumpkin patch with heirloom pumpkins runs through October 31. The 14th annual Pie Baking Contest is at the Saturday farmers' market on October 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with pie slices from Three Babes Bakeshop and Salt & Straw. The Halloween Spectacular on October 31 starts with an 11 a.m. costume contest, followed by trick-or-treating around the Mart. Magnolia Avenue is changing more quietly this fall, through a reopened bar, a narrow bookshop, a grooming permit, and a public workshop at the library.
If you own a storefront-adjacent home on Magnolia or a few blocks up the hill and have been wondering what these changes mean for your own plans, I'm always glad to talk it through over coffee downtown. Alexandra Cowley | Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
