"The Lus had a family restaurant that served the community for 35 years, and they wanted to turn it over to someone who would do something similar." Anna Fox said that to the Marin Independent Journal this August, describing how she and her husband Jeff came to run the small storefront at 528 Alameda del Prado.
For anyone in Marin Country Club Estates, that address is part of the nearest errand run. It sits on the Ignacio strip along Alameda del Prado and Ignacio Boulevard, where the grocery, the coffee and the takeout are. When a business there closes after three decades, the usual worry is that a vacancy follows. This one went differently. The retiring family wanted the space to go to someone who would run it the way they had, the couple who took it over connected with them directly, and the new kitchen was designed to fit the space.
What the Lus Handed Over
Dragon Cafe was the Lu family's restaurant for more than three decades. According to the IJ, the family retired in 2025, and the Foxes connected with them through Facebook after what Anna Fox described as "a few heartbreaks" while hunting for a permanent home.
Here is how the handoff played out, from the couple's pop-up years to opening day:
- Early 2025. The Foxes run Fox Pizza as a pop-up around the Bay Area, using mobile Gozney ovens at breweries and farmers markets. They hold day jobs during the week, and their stated goal is a brick-and-mortar restaurant within 18 months.
- 2025. The Lu family retires after more than three decades at Dragon Cafe.
- January 2026. The Foxes take over the former Dragon Cafe space.
- February 2026. Renovation of the 728-square-foot space begins.
- August 2026. Fox Pizza opens to the public, and the IJ reports the opening in its August 11 column.
Between the IJ's first story on the pop-up in January 2025 and opening day in August 2026, about 19 months went by, a few weeks past the 18 months the Foxes had given themselves.
Twenty Seats, Built Around One Sourdough Starter
The IJ describes the result as a casual, compact, 20-seat neighborhood pizzeria. Its kitchen is under 300 square feet, and Jeff Fox planned it closely so each station does two jobs. The morning dough station becomes the expediting area during service, and the prep counter turns into the pizza line. A three-deck Polin oven imported from Italy reaches 800 degrees in each deck, which is how a kitchen that small can keep up with volume.
The dough is built on Jeff Fox's sourdough starter, now seven years old, mixed with organic Italian-style 00 flour from Central Milling in Petaluma. During the pop-up years, the dough cold-fermented for four to five days in a commissary kitchen. Now it runs on a same-day schedule, fermenting slowly at room temperature for 28 to 30 hours. Every pie is 14 inches. Fox calls the style a hybrid of New York and New Haven pizza.
Here's what's on the menu, per the IJ:
- The Tie Dye, the signature pie, with tomato sauce swirled with house-made pistachio pesto
- Seasonal pies made with produce from local farms, such as the Elote-Ish with roasted corn, house-pickled jalapeños, cilantro crema and cotija, and the Dippio Tomato with heirloom tomatoes, burrata and arugula pesto
- Starters including marinated Castelvetrano olives, house focaccia, and a kale and romaine Caesar with miso-lemon dressing
- Dessert, including a brown butter chocolate chip cookie, olive oil cake, or a celebration cake from Fire Swamp Provisions
- A drinks list of Northern California beers and 12 low-intervention wines, including bottles from Martha Stoumen Wines in Healdsburg and Hammerling Wines in Berkeley
The celebration cakes keep the money close to home. Fire Swamp Provisions is a Novato business run by Alex Tishman. He started it in 2020, and a 2024 Marin IJ profile traces how it grew from home baking into a commercial-kitchen operation. Fire Swamp has no storefront. Its website lists Thursday and Sunday farmers markets in San Rafael, both running 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., so a slice of cake at Fox Pizza is one of the few ways to buy it in Ignacio.
Fox Pizza is open Wednesday through Sunday, 4 to 8 p.m. You can order online and pick up at a dedicated service window.
Two Pizzerias, One Block, Different Schedules
Fox Pizza's neighbor down the block shows how the strip has worked for years. Boca Pizzeria is at 454 Ignacio Boulevard. A 2010 Marin IJ review described it as a casual restaurant from the team behind Boca Steak, which had opened on Ignacio Boulevard in April 2005. That puts a Boca pizza kitchen on Ignacio Boulevard since at least 2010, a short walk from the new arrival.
Their schedules differ. Fox Pizza serves a four-hour dinner window five days a week. Boca serves lunch and dinner every day. Add the other anchors with published hours and the strip's day looks like this:
| Spot | Address | Hours as posted |
|---|---|---|
| Nugget Market | 470 Ignacio Blvd | Daily, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Boca Pizzeria | 454 Ignacio Blvd | Sun–Mon 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Tue–Sat 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| The Board Room Novato | 504 Alameda del Prado | Mon–Thu 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sat 5 to 11 p.m.; Sun 5 to 10 p.m. |
| Fox Pizza | 528 Alameda del Prado | Wed–Sun, 4 to 8 p.m. |
The table makes the schedule easy to plan around. On Monday and Tuesday, Fox Pizza is closed and Boca carries the pizza on its own. From Wednesday through Sunday, both are open in the early evening, and Fox Pizza's last orders come at 8 p.m. For Saturday lunch on this stretch, Boca is the sit-down option, since The Board Room doesn't open until 5 p.m. on weekends.
The Rest of the Strip, Address by Address
Four businesses with current listings fill out a typical errand loop:
- The Board Room Novato, 504 Alameda del Prado. It's two doors from Fox Pizza, and its website describes a Speakeasy, a bar hidden inside the restaurant.
- Active Culture, 464 Ignacio Blvd. Its Novato page says this location opened in late October 2021, so it turns five this month. It takes online orders.
- Marin Coffee Roasters, 466 Ignacio Blvd. Visit Novato lists it at that address. It's next door to Active Culture and handles the morning end of the strip.
- Nugget Market, 470 Ignacio Blvd. It's the grocery anchor and the strip's longest-hours stop, open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day according to Nugget's store locator.
At 528 Alameda del Prado, a family restaurant that lasted more than three decades is now a 20-seat pizzeria in the same 728 square feet. Anna Fox told the IJ, "The community near the restaurant is so warm and welcoming, and we are grateful we landed where we did."
Into December, Beyond Ignacio
For holiday plans this year, two Novato events are already on the calendar, and both are a short drive from the Ignacio strip. The City of Novato's 2026 Holiday Crafts Faire runs at the Margaret Todd Senior Center, 1560 Hill Road. Hours are 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, December 4, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 5. That same Saturday, the Community Tree Lighting Festival takes over Downtown Novato from 4 to 7:30 p.m.
December 5 is a Saturday, and Fox Pizza's 4 p.m. opening coincides with the start of the tree lighting, so you can pick up a pie on the way home from downtown.
Ignacio's storefronts change hands quietly, and the timing of a handoff affects what follows. If you own a home in Marin Country Club and are thinking about your own timing, Amadeo Arnal brings the same neighborhood knowledge to the decision. Request your complimentary Marin market consultation.
