Sam’s owner purchases Silver Peso bar in Larkspur
- Francisco Martinez
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
The owner of Sam’s Anchor Cafe in downtown Tiburon is adding another iconic Marin bar to its portfolio — the 64-year-old Silver Peso in Larkspur.
Peso owner Rebel Lee announced his retirement and the sale to Tiburon resident Conor Flaherty and his ownership group in a video posted to the bar’s Facebook page Feb. 5. Lee said the group would take over in 30 days once the liquor license is transferred.
Flaherty — who attended Reed Union School District schools and Redwood High School in Larkspur and reportedly met his wife at the Peso — did not immediately respond to a text message and email requesting an interview Feb. 6.
The purchase marks Flaherty’s second major acquisition of a historic Marin watering hole. He and a group of investors purchased Sam’s, the landmark dockside restaurant on Tiburon’s Main Street, from longtime owners Steve Sears and Brian Wilson nearly eight years ago.
Lee said he trusts Flaherty to maintain the Silver Peso’s character as an unpretentious dive bar in one of Marin County’s wealthiest areas.
“He intends to keep the Peso the way the Peso is now,” Lee said in a Feb. 6 interview. “It’s in good hands.”
The Silver Peso, located at 450 Magnolia Ave., has been closed since May when a car crashed into the back of the two-story building, causing structural damage. A note posted on the bar's door indicates a local Larkspur family purchased the building and is working with the bar, the city and a construction team to make necessary repairs and reopen safely.
Lee said navigating the reopening process while dealing with multiple insurance brokers, attorneys and new building landlords became impossible to manage alongside his deteriorating health.
Lee’s condition — a cerebrospinal fluid leak following a surfing accident in 2014 — causes light sensitivity and excruciating head and cranial pain, which forced him to operate the business from his bedroom for much of his ownership.
Flaherty’s team had been interested in buying the bar as early as seven years ago, Lee said. But Lee — who spent 15 years as a bartender before purchasing the bar in 2015 from previous owner Rick Adams and his wife, April — said he wasn’t interested in selling at the time.
The car accident, subsequent construction and the building’s change in ownership “changed a lot of things for me,” Lee said, leading to talks over the past five months to see whether there was any way to jointly purchase both the business and building.
Despite several offers and “lots of different phone calls” from interested buyers, Lee said Flaherty’s desire to maintain the bar as it is stood out.
“The top priority is that the Peso remains what it is,” Lee said. “Not a restaurant, a wine bar or anything like that.”
The Silver Peso has operated as a tavern since 1938, though the current bar was established in 1961 when Chester Wolmack, a U.S. Navy diver, purchased the business with money he made retrieving silver coins from Manila Bay after World War II. Rock legend Janis Joplin was a regular patron in the late 1960s.
The bar became known for maintaining its dive-bar character through decades of gentrification in downtown Larkspur, where average home values exceed $2 million.
“The Silver Peso has been and its community has been so awesome to me as a bartender and an owner,” Lee said in the Facebook video. “It navigated me through a divorce, through a surgery of which I never thought I’d walk again. And I navigated it through the pandemic to make sure that it stayed open and continued on afterwards with so much help from so many other people.”
Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.