Farmshop 
2233 Larkspur Landing Circle
Larkspur
(415) 755-6700
California/Mediterranean Cuisine
Dinner nightly, lunch weekends
Entrées: $22-$30
Full bar; extensive wine list
Chef/owner Jeff Cerciello (formerly of French Laundry and Bouchon) opened his first Farmshop location in Santa Monica three years ago, and it quickly became a local favorite. Fast forward to this past summer, when his second location (in Marin County Mart) opened in Larkspur. When we visited in July, it was a packed house on a Monday. Good thing lunch is scheduled to begin daily starting in September.
The daily-changing menu features locally sourced food, wood-fired pizzas (mushrooms and duck prosciutto anyone?) and an array of farmers market vegetables and fine artisan cheeses. Executive chef is Mark Hopper and the service is stellar.
The large restaurant’s sleek, urban-feeling interior (although it’s housed in a barn-like structure) features a long bar with plenty of seating, a main dining room with wood and plush furnishings and large windows, cathedral ceilings, a lounge in the rear and an open kitchen. There’s also lots of patio seating if you choose to dine outdoors.
We started with a Hendricks gin gibson and a Denogginizer double IPA (Drake’s Brewery, San Leandro) that had a hoppy, rounded flavor. They went great with fresh Drakes Bay oysters served on ice with Persian lime mignonette that had tiny cubes of watermelon in it (delicious!). The crispy artichokes (baby ones, just the hearts and a few leaves, grilled) came with creamy di Stefano burrata, green kalamata olives, fried capers, sweet fantasia nectarines atop lambsquarters (fresh greens) and thin-sliced watermelon radishes.
We switched to wine for our entrées, and the 2008 Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon (dark berries, medium tannins, very open and full; it’s on tap, as are several other wines) went well with the Brandt Family Beef ribeye, which was large and cooked to a perfect medium rare, with roasted summer squash and peppers on top, smashed (crispy exterior) Yukon gold potatoes and a mild chimichurri sauce (with extra on the side). The ZD Chardonnay (citrus, medium bodied, stone fruits) went great with the tender, seared, herb-roasted halibut that came with Full Belly Farm cracked wheat, roasted golden beets and Vadouvan-spiced leeks.
Dessert was Valrhona chocolate budino with Freddy Guys hazelnut praline, Lamill coffee streusel and a drizzle of St. Benoit yogurt—rich and dreamy, it went great with French-pressed coffee.
Larkspur definitely has a new dining gem on its hands.
