When the owner of Marin’s own California Gold, Isaac Shumway, is complimented on having the best bar in San Rafael, he can’t help but feel a little bit hurt.
After all, this former French Laundry chef cut his culinary eye teeth in the very best Bay Area restaurants and bars such as Quince, Gary Danko, Masa’s, Alembic and Tosca Cafe, to name only a few world-famous bars and fine dining establishments on Shumway’s resume.
Naturally, when a man with Michelin star experience opens his own establishment, he’s going to do everything in his power to make it the best libation station west of Texas. And given the sheer attention to detail afforded to each and every aspect of California Gold’s ambiance, aesthetic and, of course, alcoholic beverages, it’s easy to see how Shumway’s time in the San Francisco food scene planted a seed of ambition far beyond opening the best bar in any given city.
“What we serve at California Gold are classic cocktails,” said Shumway. “We’re not aiming for the fad of molecular cocktails right now, and I wouldn’t sit on my couch watching a movie with a molecular cocktail. So, we put all of our love and energy into our classic cocktails, and even if it isn’t a classic, we make it feel like a classic.”
Chief among the classic cocktails served up at California Gold is a traditional, tempting and overall titillating gin martini. The ingredients are gin, vermouth and a lemon rind, all served in a frosty, ice cold glass with a napkin underneath. And the taste? To put it mildly—perfection.
“People always have this misconception that we’re a gold rush bar,” Shumway said. “But the real gold of California is its melting pot of people and cultures, how it literally brought people from all over the world.”
This celebration of California’s melting pot is best represented in California Gold’s fabulous array of fine craft beers and cocktails, both of which are selected and served to highlight the drinks’ best features.
The principle of drink preparation at California Gold is deceptively simple—Shumway and his crew source the most top-tier beer and highest-quality cocktail ingredients. This search spans across all of California and often sees him traveling everywhere from San Diego to Santa Cruz, all the way up to Humboldt and back down again.
“I drive in my truck to pick up the smallest and best beers, fresh in small batches,” explained Shumway. “Our beer is always refrigerated, never left out, never oxidized.”
This beer-picking pilgrimage means that each and every draft on California Gold’s menu has been hand-selected by a person who has as much passion as they have a trustworthy palate. The only non-Californian beer on tap? A good ol’ fashioned Irish Guinness.
“Prohibition hit, and all the great bartenders of the time were lost,” explained Shumway. “Especially since making cocktails is an American craft and since America is kind of the birth center of cocktails. But after Prohibition, these master bartenders needed work, and there was no work left in America, so they left for France, England, South America, China and so on.”
Shumway attributes the American propensity for sweets to the Prohibition era, citing the increased consumption of soda from fountains as having badly replaced the original palates that enjoyed simple, not-too-sweet, quality cocktails.
“There was a huge lack of good alcohol after Prohibition, as well as bartending skill, so they heard Russia was making vodka, and they started marketing it with James Bond,” continued Shumway. “While they were aging whisky to get that back going, people were getting clever with egg whites and orange peels, and suddenly we had flaming Dr. Peppers and really weird, gross, sickly sweet alcoholic drinks.”
When Shumway first conceptualized California Gold, he didn’t expect it to be located anywhere other than San Francisco. But when the opportunity presented itself to take over the historic building of San Rafael’s 848 B Street, he didn’t hesitate.
Shumway is no stranger to the North Bay, having attended high school in Marin before taking off to conquer the culinary world. Along the way, however, he realized his passion for pouring proper classic cocktails, beer and other alcoholic beverages.
The historical building that now hosts California Gold underwent massive renovations and was completely redesigned. After months of work, the bar opened its doors just in time to cater to the casual rise in alcoholic beverage consumption that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was in there every day for nine to ten months,” explained Shumway. “I completely redid the floors and the ceilings and designed the custom beer tap, made with custom handles that I got from going to antique markets.”
“The entire place has really changed,” continued Shumway. “There used to be a beer pong table and, honestly it was just a total dump and had quite a bad history and reputation as well. The cops used to just sit on the corner and wait for fights to burst out. In fact, the first weekend I bought it, some guy tried to fight me going into the place.”
“I was nervous to take my work up to Marin,” said Shumway. “But the coolest and most unexpected thing about serving San Rafael instead of San Francisco was that so many people moved out of the city to Marin, and in that it was just like working in old San Francisco. And now I think it’s just one of the coolest clientele I’ve ever seen in my life.”
California Gold does not currently serve food items, though bar patrons are more than welcome to bring outside food inside to enjoy with a drink. Future plans to expand the bar’s offerings to include tasty bites are underway, however. And, in the meantime, downtown San Rafael’s food offerings are plentiful and downright delicious enough to tide over even the most hungry of bar patrons.
California Gold is located at 848 B St. in San Rafael. They are open for business 4pm to 1am Tuesday through Thursday, 3:30pm to 2am Friday and Saturday and 3:30pm to 1am for the establishment’s special Sunday Service. Pop in for happy hour, or Golden Hour, as it’s called at California Gold. For more information and to see the menu, visit the California Gold website at californiagoldbar.com.
Thank you CA Gold, when does the dancing start cause we have lost most if not all dancing bars since & during covid. Please, please let us dance off the alcohol before we hit the streets. Fresh non micro popcorn would be good as well. Drink is fun but we need to work it off. ??☘️???????????????
Where is Restaurant located & when are Dance classes? Thanks
Oh my gosh – I was THRILLED when you opened your doors – best cocktail I’ve ever had. Then COVID came, and I was certain it’d be curtains!!! This place is the best of the best! THANK YOU!!!