Hilda's Is Open Again as Tasty Delicious, and the Last Holdup Wasn't Town Hall

Hilda's Coffee Shop's old sign now hangs next to the bathroom door at 639 San Anselmo Ave. Bubba's Diner's original clock is mounted near the kitchen. Both belong to Tasty Delicious, the burger counter that opened in Hilda's former space the last full week of September.

This summer we wrote about why Hilda's was still a shell while Tụ Tập's rooftop filled up a few doors away, and at the time permitting looked like the bottleneck. The operator now says the construction went quickly and the long wait came at the end, for a power connection. The restaurant that took over the town's best-known pancake house also opened with burgers, and the pancakes are still to come.

Four Months of Building, Then a Wait for Power

The timeline comes from three sources: the restaurant's own team, The Pitch, the student paper at Archie Williams High, and the Marin Independent Journal.

1. 1960. Hilda's opens downtown, first across the street from where it ended up. Tor Nielsen named it after his wife, Hilda. Darleen and Brian Young bought it in 1978, and their daughter Sue Kirton took over in 2006.
2. September 2025. Hilda's closes because of problems with its plumbing, electrical, flooring and windows. Pat Townsley, owner of Creekside Pizza & Taproom across the street, buys the business. According to Creekside, the first request to PG&E also goes in that month.
3. March 2026. Townsley tells The Pitch that getting permits from the Health Department, the Town of San Anselmo and Central Marin Sanitary District has been the hardest part. He expects the build to be done by mid-May and the restaurant to open about a week before Live on the Avenue starts on June 20.
4. Summer 2026. Creekside's "Heard on the Street" blog says the remodel took four months from gut to ready to open. It thanks the Town, Public Works, Ross Valley Fire, Central Marin Sanitary, Ross Valley Sanitation District and County of Marin Environmental Health for working openly with the team. The same post says the restaurant had been ready for nearly two months and was still waiting for PG&E to connect the power upgrade it required.
5. Late September 2026. Tasty Delicious opens.

So the permits did get done, and in the operator's own telling the agencies were cooperative. On this block, the step that ran past the June target was the utility work that came after construction. Creekside also puts a number on the job. It describes the space as about 1,000 square feet, in a building the team doesn't own, and says bringing it up to code cost $1,400 per square foot.

What Crossed the Street, and What's New

According to the IJ, a team of locals built the restaurant on the history of Jeep's Drive-In, Hilda's and Bubba's Diner. Taken together, those three places go back nearly a century. Operations manager Ryan Soifer put the goal this way:

"We built this for the community, honoring what came before us but at the same time, blazing our own path."

Townsley is managing partner. Chef and general manager Jackson Palmer, a Mill Valley native, worked at State Bird Provisions and other San Francisco fine-dining kitchens before he ran the kitchen at Creekside.

Local designer Ann Lowengart of Ann Lowengart Interiors did the interior. In an Instagram post she said the brief was a 1960s- and '70s-style burger joint in the spirit of Inverness. The room is 12 feet wide and seats about 34. It has a wood-slatted ceiling, chrome-framed orange chairs and a deep green banquette. Architect Bill O'Callaghan, who is based in San Anselmo, and the San Francisco builder Cookline handled the infrastructure work.

Prices Set for Repeat Visits

The IJ reports burgers at $10 to $14, fries starting at $5 and 12-ounce shakes at $6. The team said it wanted the place cheap enough for people of every age to come back often.

The Tasty burger comes with one or two 4-ounce patties, caramelized onions, pickles, American cheese and Tasty sauce. The Backyard adds lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard and raw onion. Any burger can be made with a black-bean patty, and gluten-free buns are available. The fried chicken breast is buttermilk-brined and served on a bun. You can also get it in a Sonoma Valley Foods tortilla with the Palmer family's Caesar dressing. At opening, the twisted Sidewinder fries were on the menu and the hand-cut, twice-fried fries were due in late October. Both now appear on the restaurant's menu.

The IJ gave the hours as 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily starting Oct. 5. Other local listings have shown different evening hours, so check tastydeliciousca.com or call 415-419-5227 before you go after dark.

Why Breakfast Comes Last

Hilda's served breakfast and lunch. In March, Townsley told The Pitch that the town has very few breakfast places and that keeping one was what he wanted to protect. The plan he described then kept the German-style pancakes and added a separate evening menu running until 10 p.m.

Tasty Delicious opened with the evening menu first. Creekside's update said the launch would start with burgers, hot chicken, Sidewinder fries and soft serve, with Hilda's pancakes to follow "in late fall." The IJ described a coffee-shop-style breakfast planned for later this year. The restaurant's FAQ still gives no date: "Once we get the lunch & dinner rhythm perfect, we'll get on this."

The restaurant's stated order is lunch and dinner first, then breakfast once those are running smoothly. Until it announces a start date, anyone who wants Hilda's pancakes should treat them as coming soon.

The Parklet Is Bigger Than the Dining Room

The new street-side parklet holds about 50 people. The dining room holds about 34. That makes the outdoor seating the larger of the two. The parklet's corners are angled so drivers and pedestrians at the crosswalk can see each other, and a retractable waterproof canopy is on the way. Until the canopy goes up, the restaurant's actual capacity on a wet November evening is the 34 seats inside.

The Other Papered Windows Downtown

Tasty Delicious is the newest of several downtown San Anselmo spaces that have been waiting on their reopening dates. These are the ones to watch:

• Maison Nico, 121 Tunstead Ave. It's moving into the former Jack's Drug Store space. In January, co-owner Andrea Delaroque told the San Francisco Chronicle she hoped to open in summer 2026. In September, the Marin IJ reported that renovations were expected to finish in early November, with no opening date set. The County's food facility plan review list shows a conditional approval on 2/2/2026 and revisions requested on 9/29/2026.
• Café Réveille, 60 Greenfield Ave. This is the former Java Hub. The same County list shows conditional approval for a major remodel on 3/19/2026. Creekside's blog says permits went up and demolition began on April 23.
• The small storefront by the Creek Park bridge. It sits next to San Anselmo Gelato on San Anselmo Avenue, and its windows are now covered in brown paper.

Each of these has moved through construction and County review, and the opening dates have kept changing. If 639 San Anselmo Ave is any guide, finished construction doesn't mean the doors open that week. Hookups and inspections still come after the build.

Sunday, Nov. 1, on the Avenue

San Anselmo's Día de Muertos celebration is Sunday, Nov. 1. Dancers, a ceremony and an altar start the event at Imagination Park. Then a procession goes to Taco Jane's for the blessing of the altar, more dancing and dinner. Clocks fall back an hour at 2 a.m. that morning, so it gets dark earlier than it did last weekend. Tasty Delicious is a block from the Avenue's other dinner spots if you want a $6 shake after the procession. For more on the town's fall projects, our San Anselmo fall punch list and the San Anselmo neighborhood guide are good places to start.

We're glad to see the lights back on at 639 San Anselmo Ave, and we'll keep following the other papered windows on the Avenue as they open. If an old building on your own street has you wondering what changes like these mean for your home, Team O'Brien would be glad to talk it through. Get your free home valuation or schedule a consultation.