MARITIME SAUSALITO LOCALS APPARENTLY HOLDING UP THEIR DRINKING END OF A LISTING WINE INDUSTRY

Zoom in and across the street down there, just as Sausalito’s main drag begins to curve — you’ll see the red outdoor seating at Joanne Weir’s Oaxacan comida, Copita.

Like a good jazz musician -- which by the way I am not – this will be a riff on what Onion-like satirist Patrick Heij wrote recently in his Marin Lately newsletter. To prove I can’t play a lick — unless you count the Les Paul knockoff I have sitting in the corner of the family room — I haven’t touched it since I gave it to myself as a birthday present more than three years ago. But I can improvise. Thus, I unquestionably digress.

The gist of Marin Lately’s sardonic piece was that the small Marin burgh that is Sausalito – which is on all tourist maps – is that the town is an outlier when it comes to drinking. Apparently and according to Heij, who is getting a lot of ink these daze, primarily in the NY Times, Sausalito is “holding steady” when it comes to booze. While apparently the rest of Americans are drowning in their sorrows instead of drowning in wine and spirits – their spirits have their daubers down.

Way to go Sausalito!

My office is not far from this town which sits on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge; and one which I frequent frequently that has three restaurants I really adore. (Which isn’t saying much because for some inexplicable reason, Marin County is bereft of a plethora of exceptional restaurants.) I am saying a lot though because I think these are a trio of the best restaurants anywhere.

I like Joanne Weir’s Oxacan-centric Copita, in the heart of the tourist zone. Its list of tequilas and mezcals will kill a horse but not you and me. I’m partial to the latter drink because it’s the spirit in my estimation, that most resembles wine. Mezcal, like wine, is so dependent upon its terroir – it’s natural growing surroundings – in which the agave is cultivated and roasted. To dispel several rumors about mezcal: They are not all smoky, they don’t have worms. And when I called my pal Mal from a bar in Oaxaca, where I was learning to drink the stuff, he asked me if I was tripping? No, I was merely lovin’ life.

The second Sausalito restaurant I like a lot is a French bôite right on the docks of Richardson Bay, a tributary of San Francisco Bay. Le Garage – in a converted auto garage – has an extensive wine list that is, as one would expect, Francophile-friendly.

For instance, the list is chockful of things such as the 2021 Brumes De La Tour Blanche Sauternes at $15 the glass; 2021 Château De Beynat Moi J’ai Un Grain orange wine from Bordeaux, $14; 2020 Domaine Lucien Lardy - Moulin Á Vent Beaujolais, $48 the bottle; and a 2021 Domaine De La Paleine Saumur Cab Franc, from the Loire, $52.

Finally in my troika is the indomitable Sushi Ran. Without doubt the best Japanese restaurant in Marin, and perhaps the entirety of the Bay Area. My partner Tina and I often celebrate our anniversary at The Ran; and begin with glasses of Champagne. On the list now is the NV Henriot, Brut Souverain ($20), a sexy bubbly that gets our bubbles bubbling. Then perhaps a glass of ’22 Assyrtiko Santo, from Santorini ($18), which is perfect with the freshest sushi or miso black cod you might encounter this side of the Pacific.

The food at these spots is top notch and authentic and while Copita is on the main drag where turistas tend to congregate; Le Garage is off-the-beaten path and on a sunny, warm day it will have you believing you’re in the south of France; while Sushi Ran, on another main street that tourists miss although is only a block off the main thoroughfare. All are frequented mostly by locals or from San Francisco.

Joanne Weir, in case you don’t know, is a cookbook author and has(d) a food show on NPR for years. Downtown Sausalito, at her Copita, order the 24-Hour Carnitas. On the bayside at Le Garage, a huge bowl of mussels – as high as Richard Dreyfuss’ Encounters of the Third Kind shissel of mashed potatoes – will take you way beyond the stratosphere.

And thereby, the good citizens of Sausalito are striving diligently – in that earnest Marin sort of way – to hold up their end in the current non-de rigueur drinking climate. In Sausalito, at least, the climate has already changed.