The Spinnaker (Portugal)

OVERVIEW

The Spinnaker Restaurant (100 Spinnaker Drive, Sausalito, CA)  has anchored its own pier extending into Richardson Bay since the late 1960s, offering 270-degree panoramic views of the San Francisco skyline, Angel Island, Alcatraz, and the Bay Bridge from floor-to-ceiling glass walls. An American-Continental seafood restaurant open seven days a week, it is one of the most dramatically situated dining rooms in the Bay Area, with an award-winning wine list and a fresh, seasonal seafood menu that has earned it a loyal following for over five decades. 

HISTORY
The Spinnaker sits on its own pier extending into Richardson Bay — the same waters where Azorean Portuguese sailors first put down roots in the 1870s. By 1900, Portuguese Americans comprised nearly a quarter of Sausalito's entire population — no other immigrant group left a deeper mark on this waterfront. They built the sardine canneries along this shore, operated the anchovy fleet that supplied Bay Area fishmongers, and constructed the boat works that defined Richardson Bay for generations. The restaurant is named for the great billowing sail — the one those sailors knew best. In Portuguese, the verb Bolinar means to sail close to the wind. It is also the name of the stainless-steel sculpture that stands a few hundred feet from this spot in honor of the two cities' sister-city relationship established in 2013.  No other ethnic group has had a longer or closer connection with Sausalito than the Portuguese.

FEATURED WHISKEY - Venakki Woodwork Tawny Port Cask Single Malt

Venakki Distillery, Portugal  ·  Cask Strength

Jim Murray Liquid Gold Award; 96 points, 2024 Whisky Bible. Portugal's first single malt, matured in Tawny Port casks. The IDESST Portuguese Cultural Center stands on Caledonia. The Holy Ghost Festa has been celebrated in Sausalito since 1886.