Paseo Bistro served its last night at 17 Throckmorton Avenue on December 20, 2025. It closed five days before Christmas, after five years in the brick rooms of El Paseo. The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce's closing notice ended with a promise: "Stay tuned here to find out what happens next for this beautiful space."
What came next is Lima Nikkei, a Japanese-Peruvian restaurant that the Marin Independent Journal reported on October 27 as recently opened. Last year the restaurant in the rooms along the passageway between Throckmorton and Sunnyside closed just as the season got going. This year a new one is serving before the season starts, and December's downtown calendar is filling up around it.
Ten Months From Last Service to a New Menu
El Paseo has been through this before. The brick-walled rooms have held one restaurant after another since the 1940s. Between owners, the space has usually stayed empty for a long time.
| Date | What happened at 17 Throckmorton |
|---|---|
| October 2009 | Tyler Florence and Sammy Hagar take over the space and plan an American tavern |
| March 19, 2011 | Their El Paseo opens |
| July 2018 | Hagar closes El Paseo |
| 2019 | Ki Yong Choi's group takes over |
| December 10, 2020 | Paseo Bistro opens |
| December 20, 2025 | Paseo Bistro closes |
| October 2026 | Lima Nikkei is reported open |
SFGATE reported in 2009 that Florence and Hagar had taken the space, and Eater San Francisco reported the opening a year and a half later. After Hagar closed in July 2018, about two and a half years passed before Paseo Bistro opened in December 2020, and the Chamber's account says the pandemic stretched that wait out. This time the stretch from last service to the Independent Journal's opening story was about ten months.
The person behind the quicker turnaround also knows how to build. Edwin Sandoval is originally from Lima, Peru. He worked in his family's restaurants in the 1970s, and moved to Novato in 1982. He stayed in restaurants for a while, then spent 35 years in construction. He owns Atlas Construction and oversaw the renovation of El Paseo himself.
What the Renovation Changed, and What It Left Alone
If you last ate at El Paseo under Paseo Bistro, the main room will look brighter. A previous owner had whitewashed the brick, and it has been sandblasted back to its original color. The dark-stained wood floors have been refinished in a lighter shade, and all 56 light fixtures have been replaced. The space seats about 125.
In the main dining room, exposed brick sits behind pale wood furniture and curved upholstered banquettes. The back room has kept the building's original colored glass windows and exposed rafters. Vertical wood slats give the bar a Japanese look.
It's also a family business. Sandoval's grandson Lukas, a business student at the College of Marin, manages the restaurant, and his granddaughter Claudia handles bookkeeping and marketing. Sandoval says coming back to restaurants is about creating an opportunity for his grandchildren.
A Menu Built From Two Immigrant Kitchens
Nikkei cooking grew out of the Japanese immigrants who began settling in Peru more than a century ago. Sandoval wrote the menu. The kitchen is run by Wilmer Anaya, also from Lima, whose resume includes La Mar Cebichería Peruana in San Francisco. The plates are meant for sharing. Here is how the menu is laid out:
- Six ceviches, including yellowfin tuna in ají amarillo leche de tigre finished with wasabi and shredded nori, and octopus with a black olive emulsion and chimichurri.
- Four maki rolls, including shrimp tempura with avocado and cucumber wrapped in fresh fish with cebichera sauce, and a yellowtail roll with cilantro, jalapeño and yuzu mayo.
- Bites and small plates: bao de chicharrón with crispy pork belly and rocoto gochumayo, a Hokkaido scallop with aged Parmesan foam served in the shell, and roasted cauliflower with edamame hummus and huacatay, a Peruvian herb.
- Robata skewers of chicken, beef tenderloin, wild salmon, Spanish octopus and mushrooms, served on miniature Japanese grills in the style of Peruvian anticuchos.
- Larger plates: lomo saltado made with beef tenderloin, udon with salmon and shrimp in a Peruvian chile coconut curry, and Australian wagyu New York strip or center-cut filet mignon with yuca fries.
The seafood comes from Four Star Seafood & Provisions in San Francisco and the meat from Allen Brothers in Chicago. Bartender Lee Bustamante built the cocktail list with Sandoval. The Paseo Sour, named for the space, mixes pisco, matcha, shochu, yuzu and black sesame syrup. The Miso Elixir comes with a sweet potato anticucho on the side.
The Independent Journal's October story lists dinner hours of 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Since the restaurant is new, call ahead before planning a night around those times.
The December Calendar Downtown
El Paseo reopens just as Mill Valley's civic calendar turns toward downtown. Here is the stretch from Thanksgiving weekend to Winterfest:
- Friday, November 27, through Thursday, December 31. A resolution to suspend parking meter and multi-space kiosk payments for a free holiday parking period was on the November 2 City Council agenda, with a staff recommendation to adopt it.
- Tuesday, December 1, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. First Tuesday ArtWalk at the Community Center, 180 Camino Alto.
- Saturday, December 5, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Holiday Craft Fair at the Community Center.
- Sunday, December 6, starting at 1 p.m. Winterfest, the Chamber's free holiday celebration, presented with support from the City of Mill Valley.
Winterfest is the one that changes downtown itself. The Chamber is calling a new holiday lighting installation "at Depot Plaza and beyond" its headline addition for 2026, and it will be unveiled alongside the usual afternoon program. That program includes performances by Happy Feet, RoCo Dance and Marin Conservatory of Dance, electric toddler train rides, a visit from Santa and the community tree lighting.
Sunday, December 6, Hour by Hour
The Chamber also starts that day early. Its second annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party runs at the Assembly Wealth Event Space, 319 Miller Avenue, with sessions at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $65 per gingerbread house participant. Adult caregivers get in free, with complimentary coffee and champagne, and holiday movies play while families decorate.
The 11 a.m. session falls before Winterfest begins at 1 p.m. The 1 p.m. session starts at the same time as the festival. Either way, the afternoon includes performances, Santa and the tree lighting, along with the new lights.
After that, Lima Nikkei's posted Sunday hours have the kitchen open from 4 p.m. It works for an early dinner after the festival: ceviche and robata skewers for the table, and a Paseo Sour for anyone who stood through the dance performances. A year earlier, on the same weekend, Paseo Bistro was two weeks from its last service. This December the rooms off the passageway between Throckmorton and Sunnyside are serving dinner through the season, with Sandoval's 56 new fixtures lighting the brick.
Nick Svenson grew up in Marin and brings a construction background to his real estate work, so an old building like El Paseo getting a careful renovation is the kind of local news he follows closely. If you own an older downtown Mill Valley home or a property with original brick, wood and windows, and you're weighing how far to go with a renovation before a sale, Livein415 can talk through what's worth restoring and what's worth replacing. Schedule a 15-minute consultation.
