Tucked away in the imposing shadow of Mount Diablo, a double-pyramid peak known for UFO sightings, Danville can be overlooked. Tourists coming to the Bay Area are more likely to beeline it to the Pacific beaches or charming environs of Wine Country, not to a town whose mascot is an anthropomorphic acorn and whose name honors a settler’s mother-in-law.
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But once you visit, you’ll quickly realize Danville is a perfect day trip. The downtown is full of charming shops, and the bustling restaurants have recently landed international talent. Danville is also home to Tao House, one of the most intriguing National Historic Sites in the United States, the former home of brilliant but troubled playwright Eugene O’Neill.
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Gold hunters claimed the land in the mid-19th century, and Danville has not changed much since its early days. There’s still the original Grange Hall, built in 1874, and the Danville Hotel that opened in the 1890s. A book from 1882, “History of Contra Costa County, California” by J. P. Munro-Fraser, describes a scene that rings true today: “Its rather crooked main street ever displays an air of business, while its surroundings are wonderfully lovely, as it is guarded by that grim old sentinel, Mount Diablo, whose form, as seen from here, is noble in the extreme.”
Street names pay tribute to local pioneers and frontiersmen like Harlan and Boone, the latter descendants of the famous Daniel Boone. “Danville” itself was chosen as a town name out of respect — hey, it happens sometimes — for an early settler’s mother-in-law, who hailed from Danville, Kentucky. Between the Gold Rush prospectors and today’s population of about 43,000, fortune-hunting runs in Danville’s blood. It remains one of the most monied communities in the Bay Area, and in fact, in 2023, it was the 17th-richest community in the entire country, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Morning
The people of Danville eat well. The bakery Maison Benoit is a fine way to start the day. The shop’s dining room and patio are always packed with diners munching on decadent pastries, quiche Lorraine and beet salads. In a move that shocked the baking world, last year, the shop edged out 349 other contenders to win the grand prize at the Best Croissant San Francisco competition.
The croissant in question is notable for its lightness, as if it were floating in moon gravity. It is buttery and flaky with a perfect, soft-stretchy interior. There are other versions with Valrhona chocolate and Isigny Sainte-Mère butter, creamed spinach and fresh ricotta, and even a $35 “Le Grand Croissant” the size of a rugby ball. The bakery offers all this on top of pastries artfully made with fresh citrus, strawberry preserves, vanilla mousse and pansy flowers.
“I am a single owner, from Paris in France, like my bakers and pastry chefs,” founder Benoit Vialle says. “We all aspire to re-create in Danville the very best products that you would find in a top boulangerie patisserie in Paris, using the best-quality ingredients and the latest techniques – trying to use as little sugar as possible, for example. Everything is made fresh daily at the bakery in front of the public’s eyes, behind big glass windows.”
Daytime
Watching dough rolling and baking can engross you for a few minutes. But what to do afterward? Well, Mount Diablo with its surprising geography is a short drive away. Indelible memories can be made exploring wind caves and Native American grinding stones at the mountain’s “Rock City.” Closer by is the Shady Slope Trail in the Sycamore Valley Regional Open Space Preserve, which one online reviewer has dubbed “the Little Switzerland of the Bay Area” for its springtime visage of green rolling hills.
Back in downtown Danville, the Museum of the San Ramon Valley is a treasure trove of local history set inside a restored Southern Pacific Railroad depot. Each September, it displays a special exhibit about Native American life in California. Outside of downtown, the Blackhawk Museum, which won the East Bay Times’ “Best Museum in the East Bay” award in 2026, has exhibitions devoted to “The Spirit of the Old West,” “Art of Africa” and “Pat’s Compacts,” an array of feminine makeup cases, including one designed by Salvador Dalí. The museum also hosts the “The Don Williams Automobile Gallery,” filled with historic cars like an 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen and a 1931 Duesenberg Model J Convertible owned by Philip K. Wrigley, who drove it when he wasn’t making chewing gum.
Many people head to Danville just to visit the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site. It is centered on the stately Tao House, where the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” lived from 1937-1944 with his third wife, Carlotta Monterey. Found out back is a grave for their dog, Blemie, who only ate fine steak and wore a diamond-studded collar. Next to that is the rustic Old Barn Theatre, which holds live performances for the yearly Eugene O’Neill Festival. The bill for this summer features the Sheila Forsey drama “Teddy” (Sept. 12-13) and O’Neill’s nostalgic family tale, “Ah, Wilderness!” (Sept. 17-26).
Getting to the site requires making a reservation and booking a shuttle on the National Park Service website (visitors can also hike to the home). A guide welcomes tour groups into the house, which is decorated with oddly colored mirrors and Asian masks. It features a player piano from a New Orleans brothel and a Chinese daybed that Catherine Hepburn personally helped save from the auction block. There are photos of O’Neill scattered about, but none of him smiling — not even in his wedding photo. The playwright didn’t have a lot to smile about, as he had alcoholism and lost two sons to suicide, among other torments.
O’Neill would lock himself in his studio behind three doors when deeply immersed in his work. A tremor forced him to write in microscopic script, which only his wife could decipher. “Carlotta would see him coming out of this room weeping, almost a shell of himself,” a guide said on a recent tour. Another guide offered this “fun fact” as the tour left the house: When the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, sent explosive devices and threatening letters to his targets, he used Frederick Douglass postage stamps for victims he wanted to maim. But when he really wanted to kill somebody, he used Eugene O’Neill stamps.
Evening
Perhaps it’s time for a drink? Kaia’s Island Kitchen & Tiki Bar, a former wine bar and restaurant that recently rebranded as a tiki joint with all the trimmings: bamboo and carved totems, fiery torches after sunset and crystal-blue tropical reefs playing on the TV. Run by Randy Negi, former owner of Bridge’s Restaurant and Bar in Danville – where Robin Williams finally takes off his grandma-face in “Mrs. Doubtfire” – it has a menu originally designed by that restaurant’s executive chef. The restaurant pays tribute to traditional Hawaiian cuisine with dishes like Marinated Mahi-Mahi Tacos with pineapple pico de gallo and Loco Moco with a Schmitz Ranch beef patty and fried eggs.
Kaia’s tropical drinks, called Waves in Glasses, mix tiki tradition with Danville innovation. You can enjoy them during weekday Aloha Hours from 3-6 p.m. or on Fridays with live music. “There are old-school favorites, like the ’44 Mai Tai, created to bring back the original Mai Tai created at Trader Vic’s in Oakland in 1944, as well as our Ohanapod Mai Tai, a play on the Monkeypod Mai Tai made famous on the islands,” general manager Kenneth Lee says.
Finding dinner is a matter of walking in a random direction until you bonk into something delicious. Albi’s is a new Middle Eastern beer garden with grilled kebabs and California wine. Also new is Sushi Tamahime, an offshoot of a Japan-based company that serves authentic nigiri and set meals. But for sheer fun, it’s hard to beat Taverna Sorrentina, opened last year by three friends from Naples, Italy.
At the taverna, plates of calamari and shrimp look dumped from ocean trawlers, and Barolo-braised short ribs are mounded like a protein Mount Diablo. Olive Garden’s legendary portion sizes might have met their match. The truffles and the burrata are from Italy. And the joy in the swanky dining room rockets up whenever somebody orders the Cacio e Pepe, which is mixed in a big cheese wheel, or the New York Steak, which a server sets ablaze before slicing with a flaming knife.
“We want people to see what Italy’s all about. It’s no longer about lasagna and minestrone – that’s the ’70s and ’80s,” co-owner Valerio Piscopo says. “You’ve got to give something different and, for us, it’s about the experience. The way we present tableside shows makes the dinner more vibrant and entertaining – it’s something in the Bay Area you hardly see.”
Piscopo notes that it’s rather by chance that his crew was able to claim this location. A friend from long ago was closing a different Italian restaurant at the address and called him to offer up the spot.
“That’s why we came all the way here. We didn’t choose Danville; Danville chose us.”
If You Go
Maison Benoit: Open 7 a.m.-4 p.m. daily at 402 Railroad Ave., Danville; maisonbenoit.us, @maisonbenoit.us.
Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site: Open Wednesdays-Sundays at 1000 Kuss Road, Danville; reservations are required, nps.gov/euon/index.htm.
Kaia’s Island Kitchen & Tiki Bar: Open 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Tuesdays, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays and 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays at 480 Hartz Ave., Danville; kaiasdanville.com, @kaiasdanville.
Taverna Sorrentina: Open 5-9:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Sundays at 100 Railroad Ave., Danville; tavernasorrentina.com.
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