Emma’s Shop features handmade jewelry, local artisans and a well-curated vintage selection in Fairfax.
Lauren Segal/For the S.F. Chronicle
Gestalt House is a welcoming destination for cyclists and beer drinkers in Fairfax.
Lauren Segal/For the S.F. Chronicle
Good Earth grocery is bustling in Fairfax.
Lauren Segal/For the S.F. Chronicle
“This is a happy place. You felt it when you walked in, right?”
I’m standing inside Fairfax Variety, a wonderland of a store on Broadway Boulevard in Fairfax, which owner Polly Knox proudly calls “the last five and dime in Marin County.”
But it goes well beyond the shop’s walls of candy, constellation of disco balls and socks featuring a cowboy hat-clad cat over the word “Meowdy!” I’ve felt a “happy place” aura since I biked into this throwback town a few miles west of Highway 101 and San Rafael.
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Fairfax is the most analog small city that I’ve found in my under-the-radar Bay Area downtown travels. It has a history of art, activism and invention that continues to blend into the fabric of daily life, and a past so random and whimsical — a Wes Anderson movie come to life — that I felt the need to fact check it all.
(L-R)Fairfax Variety owner Polly Knox offers a vast assortment of items, from unexpected toys and candy to housewares, books and gifts. Knox calls her shop the last “the last five and dime in Marin County.”
Lauren Segal / For the S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal / For the S.F. Chronicle, , Lauren Segal / For the S.F. Chronicle,
(Top to Bottom) Fairfax Variety owner Polly Knox offers a vast assortment of items, from unexpected toys and candy to housewares, books and gifts. Knox calls her shop the last “the last five and dime in Marin County.”
Lauren Segal / For the S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal / For the S.F. Chronicle, , Lauren Segal / For the S.F. Chronicle,
“Fairfax: Mayberry on Acid,” reads a bumper sticker at Fairfax Variety. Accurate.
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My first Fairfax email tip came from Chronicle reader Richard Pedemonte, who sold the city for its hiking and biking. I found a guide in Chronicle graphic artist John Blanchard, who bike commutes from Fairfax, with a lift from the Golden Gate Ferry’s Larkspur line, nearly every day.
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Blanchard created a bike map with a scenic route from the Larkspur ferry landing to Fairfax, on winding paths filled with California poppies and benches facing Mount Tamalpais. “I should just make this the story,” I think, as I pass schools, churches and every good dog in Ross Valley. Expecting big hills during the 35-minute ride, I change gears just once — over a small rise in a residential area near the beginning of the trip.
Arriving in Fairfax, I’m greeted by the 1950s marquee and neon tower of the Fairfax 6 Theatre, the city’s most visible landmark. Ducking inside, it reminds me of the Cameo in St. Helena: a fun-size cinema — the largest screen seats 92 people — for a town that’s kept a steady population around 7,500 for the last half-century.
(L-R) The Coffee Roastery in Fairfax. Customers order at the Coffee Roastery.
Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle
From there it’s all bikes and coffee, with a blend of buzzy newcomers and longstanding locales. On the way into town, I join the line at BoFax Coffee, a popup window at new-ish cocktail bar Stillwater, that sells just seven drinks, including a vanilla cold brew latte that seems designed for flagging cyclists in need of a sugar/caffeine jolt. Down the street, Coffee Roastery is a funky-cool institution with coffee roasted in house, a mini-stage for local performers and a menu spreading across three walls.
This coexistence is also visible around the corner from BoFax on Bolinas Road. The Potting Shed is an old wood building filled with succulents that looks like it sprouted in this spot hundreds of years ago along with the redwood trees. Next door is inviting vintage clothing and jewelry place Emma’s Shop, established six years ago by Emma Rose, who makes jewelry in her Marin tree house.
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It can all be a bit overwhelming for those living in less eccentric climes. But Fairfax’s past is even more bonkers.
The Potting Shed, a Fairfax mainstay that feels as if it sprung up from the ground.
Lauren Segal/For the S.F. Chronicle
The town was founded in the mid-1800s by Lord Charles Snowden Fairfax, a Brit-by-way-of-Virginia who said Fairfax reminded him a little bit of both. Some of the town’s claims to fame, confirmed by the Chronicle archive:
Lord Fairfax’s manor was the site of the last duel between two California politicians in 1861, when state assemblymen Daniel Showalter and Charles Piercy faced off with rifles over a dispute related to the Civil War. (Piercy died, with a shot to the head after the first reload.)
The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane played an occasional Fairfax softball game. Herb Caen in 1970 reported that the “Dead Ringers,” with promoter Bill Graham pitching, beat the Airplane team 17-16. “You see there’s more than one way to go on grass,” Caen quipped.
The second hot tub in the Bay Area was built in the 1960s by Fairfax woodworker Al Garvey. Local Jazz legend John Handy and pioneering sex worker Margo St. James were among the first to try it out.
And Fairfax resident Joe Breeze in 1977 constructed the first purpose-built mountain bike prototype, testing it at that year’s harrowing Repack downhill trail bike race. Bike culture has only gotten stronger since here, with at least five shops in the small town, which has become a launching point for rides through Mount Tamalpais and rural Marin County.
(L-R) Volunteers Connie and Joe Breeze, who made the first mountain bike prototype, at the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Fairfax. The museum is a destination for cycling fans.
Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle
(Top-Bottom) Volunteers Connie and Joe Breeze, who made the first mountain bike prototype, at the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Fairfax. The museum is a destination for cycling fans.
Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle
I’m starstruck when Fairfax Variety owner Knox points out Breeze, in his 70s now, flying past on a bike. An hour later I find him in the Marin Museum of Bicycling, home to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and a must for any Bay Area bike fan, with hundreds of rides on display going back to the 1800s. Drop by on Fridays or Sundays when Breeze is on hand to point out the highlights and tell his best stories. (But be warned: On Sundays the bike crowds that flood that town can make the narrow streets a little too busy.)
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Looking outside the shop, the “acid” part seems a bit subdued, but the “Mayberry” is in full swing. Down the road, patrons at the Good Earth grocery store wait for freshly baked baguettes to appear. Children passing by with cones from homemade ice cream shop Fairfax Scoop (another long line) could be from any of the last few decades.
“The kids still come in after school,” Knox tells me. “They drop their bags, and go over to the candy counter. Some things don’t change.”
On Breeze’s recommendation, I stop next door at Split Rock Tap & Wheel, which may be the most Fairfax thing: a combination pub and bike shop. I reluctantly pass on the dozens of local beers on tap and get some fancy pork tacos, sitting at a wood picnic table a few feet from a sale rack of bike jerseys. Later, I roll into bike-friendly Gestalt Haus, where visitors enjoy sausages and more brew with racks on the walls to hang your ride.
(L-R) Cyclists break for a beer at combination restaurant/bike shop Split Rock in Fairfax. Gestalt House is a welcoming destination for cyclists and beer enthusiasts as well.
Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle
(Top-Bottom) Cyclists break for a beer at combination restaurant/bike shop Split Rock in Fairfax. Gestalt House is a welcoming destination for cyclists and beer enthusiasts as well.
Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle, Lauren Segal, For The S.F. Chronicle
Breeze says there’s a Fairfax surprise for me on Napa Street, a block south of downtown. I pass small cottages, many with tree houses and other artistic flair, until I reach the home of Rudy Contratti, a longtime city worker and gardener who owns the most colorful house that I’ve seen outside of a Disney musical. The fence is made of downhill skis, and Fairfax pride is everywhere — gas station signs, license plates and retired street signs fill the yard and outsides of Contratti’s house.
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In other parts of Marin County, not too far away, this might be considered an eyesore. But Breeze credits Fairfax’s historically lower housing costs for the city’s continued bohemian spirit.
Town employee and artist Rudy Contratti in front of his home in Fairfax.
Lauren Segal/For the S.F. Chronicle
“There’s a lot of youth, there’s a lot of creativity,” Breeze says, talking about artistic movements in San Francisco and parts of Marin, “and then as time goes on land gets more expensive and those people move on. Fairfax retains more of that than just about anywhere around here.”
Riding back to the ferry, almost all downhill, I pledge to return in the summer on my bike for a movie and a few beers. This happy place is full of surprises, far more than can be seen in one day.