Lima Nikkei, a Japanese-Peruvian restaurant, now runs the brick rooms of El Paseo at 17 Throckmorton Ave. The man behind it, Edwin Sandoval, has spent 35 years in construction and owns Atlas Construction. Before he served anything, he oversaw the renovation himself. Brick that a previous owner had whitewashed was sandblasted back to its original color. The dark-stained wood floors were refinished lighter, and 56 light fixtures were replaced, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
That order of work suits the building. El Paseo was assembled by hand from salvaged material eight decades ago. Lima Nikkei is the most visible example of a pattern in Mill Valley's food openings since summer, where most of the new places are built on older Mill Valley.
A builder from Lima, a cook from La Mar
Sandoval is originally from Lima, Peru, and worked in his family's restaurants there in the 1970s. He moved to Novato in 1982 and stayed in the restaurant business for a while before moving into construction. The Marin IJ reports that he came back to restaurants to create an opportunity for his grandchildren. His grandson Lukas Sandoval, a business student at the College of Marin, manages the restaurant. His granddaughter Claudia Sandoval handles the bookkeeping and marketing.
Sandoval wrote the menu himself. To run the kitchen he hired Wilmer Anaya, another Lima native, whose résumé includes La Mar Cebichería Peruana in San Francisco. Nikkei is the cooking that grew up after Japanese immigrants began settling in Peru more than a century ago. It's new to Marin, and it arrives in a building whose own story starts with someone collecting materials from far away.
The room was salvage from the start
In the 1930s, Edna and Henry Foster bought the three-story Holtum Building at 15 Throckmorton along with the lot behind it on Sunnyside Avenue. At the time the building held a cleaner and a shoe repair shop, and Edna Foster called it an "old eyesore." She hired local architect Augustus "Gus" Costigan to remodel it. Together they planned a set of connected buildings, courts and gardens with a passage running from Throckmorton through to Sunnyside. She named it El Paseo, Spanish for "scenic path." That account comes from the Mapping Mill Valley History project.
Design and construction started in 1940. By the time World War II began, two shops and some studio apartments were done. The war then significantly delayed the work, and Costigan went to Africa and Italy with the Army Combat Engineers. After he came home, he and Foster went looking for materials that already looked old. Their finds included these:
- Adobe bricks from Mexico
- Beams from a building being torn down at Fort Cronkhite
- Railroad ties and spikes
- Handmade tiles and wrought iron fixtures
- Champagne bottles, set to give a stained-glass effect
Costigan carved beams and balustrades by hand and set ornamental tiles and plaques into the walls. The complex was finished in 1948 and opened with a two-day "Fiestaval" on May 15 and 16. The Mill Valley Historical Society's 2017 History Walk guide describes the same sourcing and the same eight-year build.
That history is what makes this renovation worth noticing. The building is made of reused material, carved by hand, and built over eight years. Its new operator is a contractor who began by removing a layer someone else had added.
Every operator inherits the same rooms
The restaurant inside El Paseo has been through a long run of owners and menus. The building has outlasted all of them. Here is the sequence from the Mapping Mill Valley History record and the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce:
| Era | Operators | What they served |
|---|---|---|
| Late 1940s | Mildred Snell and Amy Hanson | The first restaurant |
| 1957 | Mary Harkins, for 15 years | Continental |
| 1972 to 2005 | Mark Bottmeyer and Gunter Kollner | French, with a wine bar added 13 years in |
| 2006 to 2009 | Chef Keiko Takahashi and sommelier Seigo Takei | French; earned a Michelin star |
| 2011 to 2018 | El Paseo House of Chops, Tyler Florence and Sammy Hagar | Steakhouse, later Spanish under Hagar |
| Until December 2025 | Paseo: A California Bistro, Ki Yong Choi | Seasonal fare sourced within 100 miles |
| Now | Lima Nikkei, Edwin Sandoval | Nikkei |
Takahashi and Takei stepped aside on October 7, 2009, which closed out more than 52 years of French and Continental cooking in the space. When Paseo Bistro opened, its general manager said the plan was to stay true to the room's historic style as much as possible. The bistro's last night was December 20, 2025, as announced by the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Those were very different kitchens. French cooking, a celebrity steakhouse and a farm-sourced bistro all worked inside the same brick and the same carved rafters. Each new operator has had to decide how much of Costigan's room to show. Sandoval chose to show more of it.
What the renovation changed, and what it kept
The main dining room now pairs exposed brick with pale wood furniture and curved upholstered banquettes. The back room keeps the building's original character, with colored glass windows and exposed rafters. In the bar, vertical wood slats give the space a distinctly Japanese look. The restaurant seats about 125.
If you've eaten at El Paseo under an earlier operator, the back room is where you'll recognize the most. The colored glass is in line with the champagne-bottle glasswork Costigan used across the complex. The lighter floors and the brick back in its natural color brighten the front rooms without touching the structure.
How to order in a room built for sharing
Lima Nikkei's menu is meant to be shared, which fits a set of small connected rooms. The Marin IJ described the menu this way:
- Ceviche first. There are six. One is yellowfin tuna marinated in leche de tigre made with ají amarillo, Peru's yellow chile, then finished with wasabi and shredded nori. Another pairs octopus with a black olive emulsion and chimichurri.
- Then a bite or two. Options include bao de chicharrón, which is crispy pork belly with house pickles and rocoto gochumayo, and a Hokkaido scallop served in the shell with aged Parmesan foam. Roasted cauliflower comes with edamame hummus, anticuchera sauce and huacatay, a Peruvian herb.
- Robata to the table. Skewers of chicken, beef tenderloin, wild salmon, Spanish octopus and mushrooms come out on miniature Japanese grills, in the style of Peru's anticuchos.
- A larger plate to split. Lomo saltado is beef tenderloin stir-fried with onions, tomatoes and soy sauce. Or try the udon with salmon, shrimp and edamame in a Peruvian chile curry with coconut milk.
There are also four maki rolls, including a yellowtail roll with cilantro, jalapeño and yuzu mayo. Seafood comes from Four Star Seafood & Provisions in San Francisco and meat from Chicago-based Allen Brothers. Bartender Lee Bustamante worked on the cocktails with Sandoval. The Paseo Sour, named for the building, is made with pisco, matcha, shochu, yuzu and black sesame syrup.
Lima Nikkei opens at 4 p.m. every day. It closes at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The menu is at limanikkei.com.
The same thread runs through Mill Valley's other recent openings
El Paseo isn't the only recent opening tied to an earlier chapter of the town.
At Strawberry Village, Tartine Mill Valley is a homecoming. Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt got their start at Bay Village Bakery in Point Reyes Station in 1995. They moved the bakery to downtown Mill Valley in 1999 and closed it in early 2002, then opened their first Tartine in San Francisco's Mission District. The Marin IJ covered the Mill Valley opening in August and called it a comeback nearly 25 years in the making. Bread is still baked in San Francisco, but pastries, cakes and savory dishes are made on site. The morning buns and bread pudding in the case are made right there. Tartine is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 800 Redwood Highway Frontage Road, Suite 125, with indoor and outdoor seating for 120.
Across the roadway is Cholita Linda, the sixth location and first in Marin for owners Vanessa Chavez and Murat Sozeri. Their following goes back to 2008 at the Jack London Square farmers market in Oakland. Chavez's mother and grandmother are from Peru, and "Cholita" was her mother's nickname. Chavez also makes clear that the food isn't defined by any one country. Cholita Linda is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Between it and Lima Nikkei, Peruvian family cooking now shows up at both ends of Mill Valley.
Downtown, these are close to El Paseo:
- Mill Valley Pasta Co., Tony Adams's retail shop at 29 Miller Ave., opened in early September. It sells fresh and dried pasta, sauces and other pantry goods.
- Playa, at 41 Throckmorton Ave., is a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide California, which was announced June 26, 2026. It's a short walk from El Paseo's Throckmorton entrance.
For an evening downtown, walk El Paseo's passage from Sunnyside to Throckmorton before dinner. Look at the carved beams and set tiles Costigan left along the way, then go into the brick room at the end. More on the town is in our Mill Valley neighborhood guide, and the story behind this year's Fall Arts Festival changes covers another downtown tradition that has shifted.
I like a building that shows how it was made, and El Paseo shows it in every beam and tile. If you own an older Mill Valley home and wonder what's under a later layer of paint or flooring, I'm glad to walk through it with you and talk about what's original and what's worth bringing back. Paul O'Neil. Let's Connect.
