Discovering Odalisque Cafe
Art and artists surround a new restaurant in a 136-year-old San Rafael building.
"HOW LONG HAS this been here?” According to Odalisque Cafe and Grille’s founder and opening chef, Jay Yinger, that’s what people say on discovering his colorful California-Mediterranean restaurant at 1335 Fourth Street in San Rafael. “They’re surprised to see white tablecloths, leather chairs and bright artwork on brick walls,” he says.
The question really has two answers: while Odalisque Cafe has only been open two years, the building that houses it has a colorful 136-year history.
The Past
In 1871, according to Barry Spitz’s Marin: A History, a millionaire named Upton McRea Gordon built a brick building on the south side of Fourth Street between C and D streets, where he opened Marin’s first bank. “And next door,” adds Spitz, “Gordon built an opera house seven years later.” Then, in 1902, Gordon’s Opera House became the Lyric, Marin’s first movie theater.
By 1920, with the advent of department stores, Fourth Street became Marin’s premier place to shop — but the beautiful brick building wasn’t so fortunate. It went from a 1930s bakery to a World War II bunkhouse to a 1960s Chinese restaurant to a 1990s bar and lounge named T and T’s, eventually becoming a forlorn-looking vacant space.
In 1997, artist Phyllis Thelen saw beauty in the brick building and persuaded four fellow artists to put up $60,000 to lease it and create a cooperative arts center. Such was the beginning of San Rafael’s well-known Art Works Downtown.
In 1999, with help from the City of San Rafael, the Bank of Marin and the Marin Community Foundation, the nonprofit Art Works Downtown purchased the building for $3 million. And now the building that started 136 years ago as Gordon’s Opera House consists of 35 individual artist studios, 17 below-market-rate apartments (mainly inhabited by artists), three art galleries, four storefront art-oriented retail operations and Odalisque Cafe (the name, loosely translating as “concubine,” is taken from the title of a famous 1814 painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres).
The Present
Before opening the dining spot, Yinger, who has practiced architecture and done restaurant design for 30 years, worked with Pat Kuleto, Bob Freeman (California Cafe, the Trident) and Steve Sears and Brian Wilson (Sam’s Anchor Cafe). A man of many talents, Yinger also worked front of house at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse and founded the former Andalou Restaurant in San Rafael in 1978. He has also served on Art Works Downtown’s board of directors.
“The idea of having a restaurant to attract people to the art center was often a topic of discussion,” Yinger recalls, “so in 2008, when the space came available, I chaired a committee to find a suitable restaurant tenant. But I wasn’t very good at it because a year went by with no tenant in sight.” He then made the mistake of missing a board meeting and was elected to be the one to create a restaurant to occupy the space.
After a four-year rebuilding and remodeling process, Yinger, along with artist Lisa Long and a few others, opened the doors to the cafe.
Apparently, the concept of restaurant as people magnet is a good one. Prior to Odalisque’s opening, Art Works Downtown was attracting 5,000 people annually. “Now,” says Yinger, “over the past year, approximately 50,000 people have visited either Art Works Downtown or our restaurant, or they visit both.”
Small wonder — and fair warning: It is easy to get lost in the Art Works Downtown/Odalisque Cafe complex. Included within are a spacious gallery exhibiting paintings and photographs priced into the thousands of dollars; a working frame shop; Viva Diva, a clothing boutique; the Marin Jewelry Guild’s design studio; and a twostory labyrinth — featuring nine doorways cut through 20-inch-thick brick walls — where 35 studios are located, each displaying the work of its resident artist, often on-site busily at work.
Odalisque Cafe also has a brick-walled wine cellar that seats 20 for intimate group dining and a patio breezeway where groups of up to 150 can be entertained. “The building seems to attract talent,” says Odalisque hostess and curator Lisa Long. “It inspires people; it’s an oasis for artists, art lovers and diners alike."
A Rich History
From opera house to movie theater to cafe and art building, the 136-yearold Fourth Street building has a colorful past. CALIN VAN PARIS
1871 Upton McRea Gordon builds Marin’s first bank, with a bordello on the top floor.
1878 Gordon opens Gordon’s Opera House next door to the bank. 1890s Vaudeville performances replace what was formerly opera on the top floor. Several retail stores occupy the ground level on Fourth Street.
1902 What had been called Gordon’s Opera House becomes the Lyric, Marin’s first movie theater. It would later be known as the Star Theater.
1940 Star Theater is converted to 17 apartments as housing for the workforce building the Liberty Ships in Sausalito and Richmond.
1990s A bar and lounge named T and T’s opens in the eastern end of the building.
1997 Six local community-minded individuals form Art Works Downtown Inc. and create the Downtown Art Center at the west end of the building.
2012 Odalisque Cafe and Grille opens its doors.
