‘A lot of great memories’: Sausalito’s iconic Trident restaurant closes

On New Year’s Day, the Trident restaurant in Sausalito closed its doors for good — for the second time.

“We had planned on being open on New Year’s Day,” said Trident General Manager Rick Enos. “But we had a better-than-expected New Year’s Eve. So instead of opening with an extremely limited menu, we made the difficult decision to close a day early.”

So ends chapter two of the Trident restaurant. Chapter one began with its founding by the Kingston Trio and their manager, Frank Werber. Named after the Trio’s record company, the restaurant opened in 1966, offering live music, cocktails, sushi, a fresh-squeezed juice bar, espresso drinks and a spectacular view of San Francisco. It became a haunt for musical legends like Janis Joplin, David Crosby and the Rolling Stones, amongst others. The Stones, introduced to the Trident’s house cocktail, the tequila sunrise, reimagined by bartenders Billy Rice and Bobby Lozoff, took the drink on their self-proclaimed “Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise Tour” of 1972, turning the drink into an international sensation.

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“The Trident was a curious mix of locals, regulars and some of the biggest names in show business that oftentimes blended in unnoticed,” said Mark Lomas, a former Trident employee and the curator, author and creator of the original Trident historical website, thetridentrestaurant.com, which is temporarily under reconstruction. “The Kingston Trio and their manager, Frank Werber, along with Lou Ganapoler, the general manager of the Trident, created this culinary phenomenon. Lou’s role in the success of the Trident cannot be understated.”

Eventually the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, the Kingston Trio became the New Kingston Trio, and in 1980, the Trident restaurant transitioned into a different concept called Horizons.

“At times, the Trident was magical and a lot of fun, but most of the time it was real work and exhausting,” said Lomas, who also worked briefly at Horizons. “All in all, a lot of great memories.”

The Trident reopened under new ownership in 2012 after a long, complicated legal entanglement that included the previous building’s owners, restaurateur and longtime Sausalito resident Bob Freeman and Constellation Concepts, a company Freeman had been involved with which had taken over Marin-born California Café.

Freeman, who started both the Victoria Station and California Café restaurant chains and owns the Buena Vista in San Francisco, sought to reconnect to the building’s past. To that end, he brought in Enos, a former Victoria Station executive and the opening manager of the original Cantina restaurant in Mill Valley.

“I thought that the Trident was the perfect fit,” Enos said. “It had a huge upside, interesting history, that view and worldwide appeal. I could settle in for as long as I wanted to continue to work. Plus, I always had to let guests know that I did not come with the building, but my age made my secondhand stories of the history slightly more believable.”

Unfortunately, COVID-19 intervened, and, due to some peculiar technicalities, the Trident didn’t qualify for COVID relief funding.

“During the pandemic, we never got any of the funds that most of the other Sausalito restaurants received,” Freeman said. “We got zero.”

“The prospects were really good initially, pre-COVID,” Enos said. “But you know, we never fully recovered from that.”

But it wasn’t for lack of trying. In 2023, the Trident, in conjunction with the Marin History Museum, placed a historical marker on the front of the building commemorating the tequila sunrise, and in 2024, the Trident partnered with the Sausalito Historical Society, contributing $8,300 from sales of that sunrise toward the replacement of the Sausalito sea lion statue that had slipped off of its base in 2023. But things on the waterfront are always complicated.

A dispute over the lease and repair of the pier in front of the Trident is ultimately what finally sealed the restaurant’s fate.

“The city of Sausalito owns the territory under the water, under the parking area, but not under the building,” Freeman said. “Separate LLCs control all of that. And all have to be in partnership together for it to work.”

The pier lease was in arrears, and the parties involved couldn’t come to an agreement to resolve the matter. Freeman says there was a potential buyer for the building.

“After the negotiations for the parking access broke down, the sale of the building fell through as a result, and we were heading into the slower winter months. It just wasn’t possible to continue,” Freeman said. “The Trident won’t open again, at least not the way we know it today. If there’s somebody who loves the Trident, loves the name and wants to make it happen, I’m willing to listen. I’m certainly open to anybody who has a better solution.”

Bridgeway LLC, a company Freeman is involved with, still owns the building. But the Trident restaurant itself is what is closing. And there’s still Eria Events, formerly Ditas, in the old Ondine space on the second floor.

“I have received so many emails from friends, regular customers and not-so-regular locals, all saying how sorry and saddened they are to hear of the closing of the Trident,” Enos said. “No one is more sad or sorry than I am, especially for our great staff, some of whom have been with the Trident for over 20 years. Every one of them worked hard with a smile on their faces right to the finish line, despite the relatively short notice. My biggest hope is that they all find satisfying employment elsewhere.”

What ultimately happens to the historic building remains up in the air. But for now, the Trident restaurant is closed for good — again.

Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com