Nick's Cove is the site of a long-standing restaurant and vacation camp in

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is on the northeast shore of

Tomales Bay Tomales Bay is a long, narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. Geography Tomales Bay is approximately long and averages nearly wide, with relatively shallow depths averaging 18 ft, eff ...

south-southwest of Tomales, at an elevation of 7 feet (2 m). Hog Island is in the middle of Tomales Bay, to the west of Nick's Cove, and

Point Reyes National Seashore Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes, Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US United States National Park Service, National Park Service as an ...

constitutes the western landmass on the opposite side of the bay. The name honors Nick Kojich, who in 1931 opened a seafood restaurant at this location, which is still in operation.

History

The land was originally settled by the

Coast Miwok The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of present-day Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golde ...

people. In 1835, a Mexican land grant called Rancho Nicasio was granted to the Miwoks, consisting of . U.S. Army officer

Henry Halleck Henry Wager Halleck (January 16, 1815 – January 9, 1872) was a senior United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory: "Old Brains". He was an important part ...

, later a Union Army general during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, gained ownership of the majority of the rancho in 1850. Croatian immigrants began settling in and around Marshall, California, a few miles south of what is now Nick's Cove, in 1900. The Markovich brothers, who were Croatian fishermen, operated on Tomales Bay near what later became Nick's Cove in the 1920s. By 1930, there was a small facility for packing smoked herring at the cove. Nick Kojic arrived in the area in 1920, and in 1931, opened a seafood stand in a former herring smokehouse. When

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

ended in 1933, he opened a bar. He called the business Nick's Cove. He also rented small cabins and cottages to tourists. Over the years, the business was owned successively by the Matkovich and Gibson families. The bar burned in 1950 but was soon rebuilt. The business closed in the early 1990s. Nickscove

Modern reincarnation

In 1999, restaurant developer Pat Kuleto purchased the property in conjunction with chef Mark Franz. It took them and their investors eight years to completely rebuild and modernize the facility at a cost of 14 million. They encountered major environmental challenges as a stream flows beneath the restaurant's kitchen, and specimens of the California red-legged frog, a threatened species, were found on the site. Nick's Cove re-opened in 2007, with a 130-seat restaurant and 12 luxury cottages, just as the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

was beginning. Saddled with the burden of $13 million in debt during a time of economic insecurity, the venture was unable to become profitable. In a letter to investors, Kuleto said that the venture had been a "complete disaster," with the result being a "complete loss of your financial investment." Kuleto's own losses were $5 million. The business was sold to Highway 1 Hospitality LLC in 2011, and is still in operation. In 2024, the boat shack at the end of the pier was destroyed by fire.

References

External links

Nick's Cove
{{authority control Resorts in California Restaurants in California