It was a busy evening at Nick’s Cove just before sunset on Sunday. Caitlin Sandberg was standing under the dim lights, chatting with her co-workers and attending to customers when she and the rest of the staff saw the smoke. Gasps erupted in the dining room as black clouds billowed from the chimney of the boat shack. As patrons watched with horror from the window, four staffers rushed out with fire extinguishers. But by the time they reached the pier, the shack was engulfed in flames. 

When firefighters arrived about 15 minutes later, it was too late. Flames unfurled against the twilight as smoke rose up over Tomales Bay and wafted south.

“It’s a shell of itself,” said Ms. Sandberg, the spokeswoman at Nick’s Cove. “It still has the bare bones, but everything inside has been destroyed. Even the piano.”

Ms. Sandberg said the staff and owners are thankful the fire did not consume the pier, and they’re optimistic about rebuilding. “Everyone at the restaurant is committed to rebuilding if we’re allowed to,” she said. 

No one was inside the boat shack at the time the fire was reported at 4:58 p.m., and the cause is still under investigation. Scott Alber, the county fire marshal, said the boathouse’s wood stove may have been responsible. “All it would take is an ember falling out to start a fire like that,” he said.

Marshall residents Tracy and Bill Manheim were sitting in the restaurant for the inaugural dinner of the restaurant’s artist-in-residence program when they saw the smoke out of the corner of their eyes. 

“It burned very brightly and for what felt like a very long time,” Ms. Manheim said. “There wasn’t any panic among the customers, people were just—curious, I guess? It was quite beautiful in a really sad way.”

Although many small piers are scattered across Tomales Bay’s shoreline, the one at Nick’s is the last to allow free public access and fishing from sunrise to the close of business—a condition set by the California Coastal Commission. Another public pier is planned at the Marshall Tavern Inn.

According to historian Dewey Livingston, the original pier was built in the 1930s by Nicola “Nick” Kojich, an ambitious Croatian fisherman who arrived in San Francisco in 1906. Mr. Kojich bounced around from Oakland to Pierce Point and eventually to the east shore, where he established a fish packing plant. There, an all-female crew packed, smoked and salted herring for his new restaurant—Nick’s Cove. In 1950, the restaurant burned down and a new one was built on the same site. The 385-foot-pier and boathouse were built in 2003. 

For the past two decades, the shack was a treasured spot to enjoy food and drink by boat or foot. With its timeworn piano and dial-up telephone used to place orders, it felt like a vestige of an earlier time on Tomales Bay. Nick’s held events there, from private parties to the annual Santa Claus photo shoot for which Santa arrived by boat sleigh.

Inverness resident Hez Renz-Press said that for the last 20 years, the shack was a special place for her family.

“There were many special occasions, but more than that it was just a place for us to go in the doldrums of winter, where we could get out of our house with three small kids and get up the bay and unload,” she said. “There was that time period when we couldn’t go to restaurants because our kids were so young and it was a bastion of normalcy.”

Point Reyes Station resident Falipa Lilias has visited the boat shack for much of their life. “I was in disbelief and totally gutted,” they said. “When I have someone who hasn’t been to the area before, I always bring them to the boathouse for a cup of clam chowder.”

In October, Falipa and others from the West Marin Fiddle Camp celebrated a birthday in the boathouse. What started as a few friends playing tunes soon grew into a jam, with dozens of people packed into the shack. One person played the piano while others plucked guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bass and banjo. Restaurant patrons clapped from the pier while kayakers sat in the slips to watch from the water. An impromptu square dance was called on the dock, and the band played into the night. 

“It was such a sweet moment that I’m really glad I have,” Falipa said. “Knowing that boathouse is gone makes it even more special.”