Sustainable seafood restaurant Coho a lively addition to Marin’s fine-dining scene

Mindful, sustainable, seasonally inspired and local sourcing is nothing new on Marin County menus, but when it comes to seafood, it’s been relegated to fast-casual restaurants Fish in Sausalito and Hook Fish in Tam Valley. With the opening earlier this year of Coho in downtown Mill Valley, Marin now has its first fine-dining sustainable seafood destination.

Cousins and business partners Felicia Ferguson and Luigi Petrone, whose fathers started Piazza D’Angelo in 1981 and which they took over in 2017, opened Coho in the old Vasco restaurant space just a short walk away. The redesign by ROY Hospitality in San Francisco created a fresh, bright and light space in shades of gray, beige and blue. Seating is a combination of booths and blond wood tables and cane-back chairs.

Chef and partner David Kornell has established close ties to local seafood purveyors Water2Table and TwoXSea, both based in San Francisco, and produce purveyors, and has designed an inviting seasonally driven menu showcasing both.

The bar has been relocated to the rear of the restaurant and offers creative cocktails ($15 to $22) with catchy names such as the mezcal-based Smoke on the Water ($15) with its slightly bitter edge coming from Genépy and Aperol and served in a martini glass with a lime garnish. Excellent. There’s even a cocktail named after Karl the Fog ($16) and made with Plymouth Gin, Cocchi Americano, Dom Benedictine and orange bitters. Wine is available by the glass ($12 to $22) or bottle ($45 to $180), beer is $8 and $9, and there’s a small selection of non-alcoholic beverages (mostly $9). The Val de Melgas ($14), a Spanish Albariño with its bright acidity, was excellent with our fish dishes.

There’s a generous selection of starters ($8 to $24), which we quickly indulged in. Sourdough Rize Up bread ($8) from San Francisco was both chewy and tangy and served with house-churned butter. The whimsically presented Triple T Farm Pea Shoots ($18), still growing from their soil came with shears to cut them with and carrot dressing to dunk the shoots into. It’s a presentation that sets up a buzz at tables near by.

Squid ($19) arrived in a bowl supporting a skewer of tempura-fried squid tentacles and thinly slivered rings of squid in a buttery Meyer lemon, garlic and parsley sauce. It was tasty but could have used more of a kick.

The vegan Iacopi Farms Butter Bean Dip ($16) in an oval ramekin with tomato oil and sun dried olives was served with crunchy focaccia crostini for scooping up the dip.

I was thrilled to see Fish Soup ($16) on the menu, especially when our attentive waiter described it as a pureed, Mediterranean-style soup served with rouille. The kitchen kindly divided the soup between two heated bowls for us. The rust-colored, rich, finely pureed, medium-thick vegetable and fish soup was served with a hunk of crusty bread topped with a cloud of saffron rouille.  Rouille, ”rust” in French, refers to the color of the sauce so often served with French soups and fish, and intended to be stirred into the soup. This saffron rouille was more aioli-like, but with a distinct, almost Romesco flavor. You can stir it into the soup, lay the sauced bread atop the soup or dunk the coated bread into the soup. All will work and you are in for a huge treat.

The Vegan Fried Rice ($24) was intriguing with its assortment of crossover winter to spring vegetables, but we were more interested in exploring the seafood dishes.