Marissa Guggiana

Marissa Guggiana is an author and marketing strategist, living in Petaluma.

Editor’s Note: In this exceptional time, publishing an Escoffier Questionnaire that features a restaurant chef would seem tone deaf without addressing how the restaurant itself has been and continues to be impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns and ongoing protocols.

Gravity Tavern owners Lara and Gar Truppelli are longtime Mill Valley residents, as well as owning the restaurant there. Lara and the couple’s adult children can almost always be found working various jobs at Gravity Tavern. The family has ridden the roller coaster of Pandemic shutdowns and reopenings, retaining their staff, erecting a large open-sided tent to expand outdoor dining, installing special UVC ozone filters in their HVAC systems that bring in fresh outside air, and using additional UVC ozone towers to sanitize the warming blankets they provide between guests—among many other safety measures.

“Gravity Tavern owners Gar and Lara are doing so much to keep the doors open and their employees working; more than they have to, and more than even bigger companies are doing,” Sean said.

Lara told us, “Ultimately, we along with our fellow restaurateurs have spent thousands of dollars on these protocols I believe we are going above and beyond. At Gravity, we also hand write on every to go-bag to thank our valued guests for their support!”

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