The best club in town is a seafood restaurant in Sausalito
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On to the show.
We’ve been thinking about clubs.
One of our great friends will move to Berlin in the spring. We love that for him, and also for us — it’s been a few years since we visited, and now we’re dreaming about our chance to ship them an air mattress as a housewarming gift which we can sleep on when we invite ourselves for vacation. As we dream up our itinerary, it’s leaning heavily on visits to clubs, because that’s what you do in a city with the most internationally legendary nightlife.
We were telling this friend that we’re excited to revisit a bar atop a parking garage because it’s one of our favorite clubs in Berlin. “That’s not really a club,” he said. “A club has to be, you know, in a club club.” Which got us I-couldn’t-help-but-wondering, what is a club, anyway?
It’s a rule that venues with DJ booths, giant sound systems, and big dance floors made for shaking it late into the night are “clubs.” But not all clubs have DJ booths, giant sound systems, and big cavernous dance floors made for shaking it late into the night.
To us, you know a club when you see it. It’s more a state of mind than type of venue. There’s something about the look, the sound, and the energy that gives you “club vibe” and thus “club.” That’s why we’re telling you this serious Bay Area intel with full conviction:
The best club in San Francisco is an Italian seafood restaurant in Sausalito which is called, beautifully, the Sausalito Seahorse.
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The Sausalito Seahorse is situated on the end of Harbor Drive near the original Heath Ceramics, off the Richardson Bay that hangs out between Sausalito and Tiburon. Owner Mauro Dosolini has been running the restaurant for more than a decade. He serves up cuisine based on dishes from his seaside Tuscan hometown, where his mother taught him to cook. The menu is mostly seafood, and the fish come mostly straight off boats just outside the restaurant. Superfriend of the list, Alex, grew up in a similar Italian town and he says the food is “very authentic.”
Dosolini is from Viareggio, which hits mid-thigh up the booted leg of Italy. It’s a town famous for Cacciucco (a seafood stew) and for parties. Look it up online and you’ll learn about the Carnival of Viareggio, which dates back to 1873. That’s 150 years of revelry.
The Sausalito Seahorse is also famous for Cacciucco and parties, brought to life with Dosolini’s Viareggian good-food-good-time spirit. Survey the dining room and you’ll notice that a generous chunk of square footage is dedicated to a stage large enough to fit more than a dozen musicians (plus piano). It’s built for a good time, which you can generally get most nights of the week (there’s usually a band every night), and always get on Sundays, when the Sausalito Seahorse’s legendary salsa nights go off.
Sunday salsa nights are what the Seahorse is known for. (There are more members in the Seahorse Salsa facebook group than there are followers of the official instagram account.) Which makes sense, considering that big bands, including San Francisco’s literal Grammy-winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra, take the stage, hold court, and turn this blessed spot into the best club we know.
Look, sound, and energy make a club, and a great look, great sound, and great energy make a great club. The Sausalito Seahorse checks all the boxes for us.
The Look
A good club has a singular visual style or point of view; when you’re there, you know you couldn’t be anywhere else. The Sausalito Seahorse has a nautical-tropical-shabby-Buddhist-chic look to it with endless seahorse trinkets decorating most of the restaurant’s indoor and outdoor square inches, making sure you never forget where you are. We discover more small-to-large Buddha statues with every visit.
The Sound
A good club has nonstop danceable music, which doesn’t always have to be propulsively danceable**. But the Seahorse goes big most nights. Salsa music demands to be listened to—that’s what happens when you have multiple brass and percussion players on a stage at the same time. It’s loud, it’s beat-driven, the dancing assumes multiple partners. You must surrender to the music because you can’t possibly hear anything else. (Literally. Grab a table outside if you want to be able to chat with whoever you go with, because the inside is nothing but trumpet sounds.)
The Energy
People come from all over the Bay Area to dance here, and that’s part of what makes the vibe magical. We chatted with a woman who drives 30 miles from San Mateo every week for Sunday salsa nights. You know that those who Will Travel For Fun bring an enthusiastic energy that’s infectious. It’s not a boozed-up energy—you can’t get hard liquor at the bar, and most everyone seems to be sweating out carafes of water on the dance floor. It’s definitely a sexual energy, although in a safe way. You aren’t sure where it’s coming from or where it’s directed, only that it’s there. And this is the kicker: the energy is timeless. The crowd seems to be in their late-40’s to late-60’s, with a few extra groups on either side of the spectrum.
If you’re intrigued, we recommend experiencing it yourself.
How to have a great time at the Sausalito Seahorse
Call the restaurant to make a reservation: 1-415-331-2899. It’s nice to have your own table that you can return to when you need a break from the dance floor. And salsa nights do tend to sell out so you’ll need to call ahead to guarantee your entry.
Sunday Salsa night is one for the books, but if screaming brass and sweaty bodies is too much for a first foray, check out the calendar to go on another night of less big energy. (The calendar seems to just list bigger events; there is live music most nights even if it’s not officially listed).
What else to do in Sausalito
Sausalito isn’t as far away as it feels—you can get there in about half an hour whether you’re coming from the downtown of San Francisco or Oakland. But sometimes it’s fun to pretend it’s a proper vacation destination and pack a bit more into the day.
Sausalito: fun to say, fun to visit.
Walk around
Head to Rodeo Beach (one exit before Sausalito if you’re heading north past the Golden Gate). There are tons of good trails nearby (duh), but the climb up to Hill 88 is our favorite. During the Cold War, Hill 88 served as a radar station for a nearby Nike missile launch area. Now, it’s just old buildings with lots of cool graffiti and tons of fog every morning. You’ll get ocean views, hill views, and a good lil workout (it’s about 1,000 feet in elevation from Rodeo Beach to the top of Hill 88).
Look at art
The Headlands Center for the Arts, “a cluster of artist-rehabilitated military buildings,” has programming for artists and occasionally for the public. The spaces are cool and spooky (and definitely, we think, haunted). Do yourself a favor and plan a trip—check their calendar for opportunities to visit here.
Eat
If you just want to visit the Seahorse for a post-meal drink and dance, then grab lunch or dinner at The Spinnaker or Scoma’s. Both restaurants have pretty great seafood and pretty fine cocktails, and have the good fortune to be situated right on the water. The Spinnaker’s dining room is surrounded by water views on three sides (!); we recommend going for golden hour and sunset.
Given how not totally far away Sausalito is, we recommend you put the above in your back pocket for when you need a jolt of magic on an otherwise mundane weekday. One of our best memories from last year is a Tuesday night out at the Spinnaker, watching the sun set with martinis and shrimp cocktail. It was life-affirming, and honestly we got home in time to be asleep by 10pm because that’s what the Bay Area does to former New York party kids like us.
Questions? Comments? Want to join a group and go to Sausalito? Reply or add a comment to this post, or drop us a line at daysnightslist@gmail.com.
**You know, the kind of dance music that absolutely demands to be danced to. We mentioned in our first report that our favorite music to dance to plays atop languid, goth-y electro-beats from acts like Boy Harsher or TR/ST or Cold Cave or Molchat Doma that you can gently bop or sway to.