Sir and Star at the Olema

Story

Sir and Star is a restaurant founded in 2012. It is located in The Olema, a historic restaurant and inn built in 1876. The restaurant is at the corner of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Star Route One in Olema, California. Olema is located in West Marin County 1mi from the Bear Valley portal to the Point Reyes National Seashore. Olema is similar to a one-horse town as it only contains one other restaurant, a lodge, a few bed and breakfast inns, a recreational vehicle (RV) resort with hookups and a campground, a few shops, and the Hindui branch retreat for their Vedanta Society, all within walking distance of the inn.Early daysThe building was constructed by the area's original Spanish land grantee, Rafael Garcia, in 1876 as part of a 9,000acre land grant from Mexico. John Nelson, the stage coach company owner that ran a stage from Olema to San Rafael, won the inn from Felix Garcia, Rafael's son, in a game of chance. The Nelsons owned the inn for three generations thereafter. The inn was a popular place of respite for local workers.The name Olema has significant historical heritage originating from the over 125adjacent Miwok Indian villages. In the Miwok language, Olemaloke roughly translates to "little coyote".During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake the road near the inn was heavily damaged. In 1910 Henry Fielding Reid of the State Earthquake Investigative Commission opined that Olema was the epicenter of the earthquake. This was later disproved, and the epicenter was found to be about 50miles north of San Francisco. The inn survived the earthquake.