Marin Magazine Trident Article

They say if you can remember the 1960s and ’70s, you weren’t there. Not always.

In 1974, Tiburon’s Mark Lomas worked at the Trident Restaurant in Sausalito, the erstwhile gathering place for, literally sex, drugs and rock and roll. Featuring psychedelic-colored menus, tasty organic dishes, Ramos gin fizzes, candles in bowls, Boston ferns throughout and, most notable of all, enticingly attired waitresses, the Trident reigned supreme at 558 Bridgeway between 1966 and 1976 (it’s now Horizons, a popular bayfront restaurant whose interior has barely changed over the past 34 years).

And Lomas, now a Marin realtor, recalls those times surprisingly well. “Each day I came to work wondering what was going to happen next,” he says. “I started there as a dishwasher one Friday summer evening with Robin Williams training me, and shortly thereafter we were both moved up to the ever so glamorous position of busboy.”  Lomas also recalls encounters with Trident diners Pink Floyd (“Nicest guys you’d ever want to meet”) and Walter Matthau (“‘You’re standing on my foot,’ he informed me when I cleared his table”).

Surprising to many, the Trident was owned and developed by that clean-cut singing group of the 1950s the Kingston Trio and their entrepreneurial manager Frank Werber.

As for the Trident’s legendary waitresses, Lomas puts it this way: “They were really sexy, intelligent and very creative; they dressed and acted as they pleased and many were respected artists in their own right—they were like goddesses.”

The list of Trident customers is also legendary: Janis Joplin had a favorite table; rock impresario Bill Graham hosted two post-concert parties here for the Rolling Stones; Woody Allen staged a scene from Play It Again Sam there; other regulars included David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Groucho Marx, Clint Eastwood, Joan Baez and Tommy and Dickie Smothers. “In the late ’60s and early ’70s, it was the place to be in Northern California,” concludes Lomas. “Now, those of us who were once there gather occasionally on a website—tridentrestaurant.com.”

Photo by Jiro Yoneshige