When Belmont residents Toby McMillen and Anne Markle walked by the space formerly occupied by Hola! Mexican Restaurant in the Carlmont Village Shopping Center years ago, they didn’t know they would eventually open their own restaurant there.
Looking over a small river running through the shopping center and next to the restaurant, the couple remembers talking casually about how the two spaces, the restaurant and the open space owned by a nursery next to it, could work well together for a restaurant with outdoor dining area.
But they didn’t imagine their casual conversation would one day become a reality. In fact, they still seem to be processing their good fortune in opening their 6-month-old restaurant, the Waterdog Tavern, when the two spaces in a key Belmont gathering place were vacated by previous tenants at the same time.
“We’re still sort of pinching ourselves,” said Markle.
Some six months ago, the couple opened the doors to their casual restaurant at 1015 Alameda de las Pulgas offering over 20 beers on tap and freshly prepared comfort food. Just three weeks ago, Markle and McMillen were able to see the patio and fire pit lining the small river alongside their restaurant come to life when they opened the tavern’s beer garden.
McMillen said watching people enjoy the beer garden during the first few Friday nights in May has offered a rare moment when he could truly reflect on how fulfilling owning a restaurant can be.
“All I could do was think to myself, ‘this is the place I wanted to open.’ It had such a great vibe and people were so happy, there were eight or nine dogs down here,” he said. “It was the place I’d always envisioned.”
With decades of experience in the restaurant business, McMillen said he wanted to create the kind of restaurant he and Markle would like to go to, one with a welcoming atmosphere where a cross-section of the community could gather.
“It’s been a while since Belmont had a restaurant that’s kind of an every-person restaurant,” he said.
With warm wood accents and walls filled with retired Belmont street signs and photographs from the city’s past, the couple has created a space reminiscent of a comfortable lodge in the woods. So far, they have enjoyed seeing old friends reconnect at what is now the fifth restaurant to open its doors at this location. Markle said she has already seen a retired teacher bump into a former student and parents come to celebrate a game well played with their children after sporting events.
“Our passion in life is just to connect people,” she said.
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Formerly occupied the Pine Brook Inn before Hola!, the space where Waterdog Tavern currently stands is filled with memories, such as first dates and family celebrations, for those who come. The same is especially true for Markle, whose mother grew up in Belmont. Though she grew up in Sacramento, Markle remembers making many trips to Belmont to visit family, and said when she and McMillen moved to the city in 2005, it felt like home.
“It was kind of like moving home in a way because we had so many memories here,” she said.
Piecing together moments in the city’s past as she adorns the walls with photos contributed by the Belmont Historical Society has been, for Markle, a personal journey as well. In the week leading up to the restaurant’s opening last fall, she uncovered a 1941 photo of her mother with her class at school, which now hangs on a wall in the restaurant among a few other photos of scenes from other chapters of Belmont’s history.
For both Markle and McMillen, preserving pieces of local history has been one of the joys of owning a restaurant in the last six months. In choosing a name for the restaurant, McMillen thought of nearby Water Dog Lake as a landmark that would represent Belmont. Though he is aware the term “water dog” is slang for salamanders, he enjoys explaining the tongue-in-cheek logo of a dog shaking water from its fur to diners who ask him about it.
Because McMillen’s father owned a hardware store and employed him and his siblings when they were young, he knew he wanted his restaurant to employ local high school students. He said the young people he’s hired have proven to be quick learners and hard workers, and providing them with some of their first work experiences has been one of the most rewarding aspects of opening a restaurant in their community.
“That’s what I wanted to do with this place, with our bussers and our host staff is to employ local kids and that’s what we’ve done,” he said. “Sometimes kids these days get a bum rap about their work ethic, and I’ve found that just to not be true.”
The couple said their son, Jack, a senior in high school, has helped them as an employee and their daughter, Leah, a freshman, is thinking about joining the family business as well.
Though Markle and McMillen admit the journey toward creating a restaurant where anyone can stop by has been long, they are excited to see the community continue to gather there, revisit old memories and create new ones.
“We tried to create the kind of place we would like to go to,” she said. “And now we come here all the time.”
(650) 344-5200 ext. 102
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