A new restaurant called the Privateer is slated to officially open in Inverness on Monday at the Tomales Bay Resort, a space that has been empty for about five years. Helmed by North Carolina native Clayton Lewis, the Privateer will start off serving breakfast and lunch before launching a prix fixe dinner with wine pairings later this month.
Most recently the head chef of the Mayo Family Winery’s Reserve Room in Sonoma County, Mr. Lewis—who bears no relation to the late local fisherman and artist of the same name—brings along the winery’s sous chef, Edwin Porcayo. The duo plans to feature seafood dishes influenced by cuisine from the Iberian peninsula, relying as often as possible on seafood sourced locally in West Marin but also purchased from the San Francisco-based sustainable seafood wholesaler TwoXSea.
“I’m going to get as much as I can locally,” he said. “But, really, seafood is seasonal as well. I’m committed to getting whatever comes off the boat.”
Born in Greensboro, N.C., Mr. Lewis earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida in Gainsville while washing dishes at a high-end restaurant. He then joined the amateur mountain bike racing circuit for a couple of years, but when the tour bus broke down in San Francisco, he decided to remain and enrolled at the California Culinary Academy. He bounced around different restaurants in San Francisco for several years until he was lured by “some crazy ass people” up to Napa County, where he cooked for a winery and sold dim sum out of a rebuilt trailer converted into a food truck.
Called Dim Sum Charlie’s, the food truck was a short-lived experiment that led to his job at the Mayo Family Winery, which gives the best hint at what the Privateer’s future dinners will offer. Primarily highlighting the winery’s vintage, his menu there featured seven-course small tasting plates paired with Mayo wines.
At the Privateer, Mr. Lewis plans to also feature wine and food pairings, though he wants to up the portion size of his dinner plates.
Among his breakfast items will be eggs benedict topped with smoked salmon from Bodega Bay and another egg dish served with fried oysters from Tomales Bay Oyster Company. The meals each cost a somewhat steep $14 and $16, respectively.
“We’re not going to be the cheapest place,” Mr. Lewis said. “But we will be the best.”
For now, Mr. Lewis expects many of his initial customers to be resort visitors looking to start their day with a well-crafted breakfast—the most important meal of the day, he said. But he hopes that, eventually, local residents will become his mainstay customers.
The genesis of Privateer happened quickly and unexpectedly, after a friend of Mr. Lewis passing through Inverness spotted the resort’s empty restaurant and pitched the idea. Discussions began in earnest between Mr. Lewis and the resort’s owner, Jeff Harriman, in the beginning of September.
Prior to the Privateer, talks had been underway between Mr. Harriman and the former owner of the shuttered Drake’s Bay Oyster Company, Kevin Lunny, to open an affordable farm-to-table, oyster-centric seafood restaurant, but Mr. Lunny said it turned out to be too big an endeavor for his family.
The Privateer arrives mere weeks after the mainstay breakfast spot in Point Reyes Station, the Pine Cone Diner, closed after 19 years in business. It succeeds two restaurants that formerly occupied the resort space: Thepmonggon Thai on the Bay and, for many years, Barnaby’s by the Bay.
Breakfast and lunch will be served seven days a week. Hours are 7 to 10 a.m. for breakfast and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch. Dinner will likely begin within a month.