Old Town / Downtown

Old Town is Larkspur’s version of a “downtown.” Of course, since Larkspur is not exactly Oakland this is basically just a cool little strip where you can go to nice restaurant and catch a movie. The area does have a sort of quaint old feel to it, but in a really well-maintained sort of way. (Probably more fiction than reality.)

I’ve been to the Lark Theatre a few times. Here’s the selling point: it’s an eclectic small town movie house that serves beer and wine (you and some of the movies provide the cheese). Now the screen is not the biggest but if you love watching quality current movies and some less of the beaten path selections on a screen that is not in your own home, this is the place for you. Also, it is unusual in not being in the big city, not many of these kinds of places left. Just to give you an idea, right now they are playing The Impossible (the Naomi Watts movie about the Thailand tsunami) and a live night at the Met (on weekend mornings). Every month they also have a sing-along night for movies like the Wizard of Oz and periodically they do special events like a Oscar’s Night and a Super Bowl event. So it is definitely an unusual theater.

Old Town also has a dozen or so restaurants that cater to locals and the weekend/summer traffic who find their way here. You have a couple of Chinese places, a sushi place, Fabrizio’s and Picco (both Italian joints), Left Bank (French, of course), and Avatar’s Punjabi Burritos--Indian style burritos that are plate licking good; just check out their website to see what I mean: http://www.enjoyavatars.com.

There are also some cool stores like the Nicolette Boutiques and Gala’s, kids clothing like Max and Addi’s, and even a little bar, The Silver Peso.

This isn’t the city, but given that Larkspur has a population that barely breaks 10,000 this is quite a selection. Definitely a nice place to spend a weekend morning or evening.