{"id":5438,"date":"2026-07-25T21:08:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T21:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5438"},"modified":"2026-07-25T21:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T21:08:54","slug":"marin-rocker-named-new-owner-of-fairfaxs-wu-wei-tea-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5438","title":{"rendered":"Marin rocker named new owner of Fairfax\u2019s Wu Wei Tea Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Paul Liberatore | Marin Independent Journal correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeremy D\u2019Antonio, a rock musician who co-owns and manages the historic Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station, thought the Wu Wei Tea Temple in Fairfax might be a little too woo-woo for his trucker-hat, bar-band sensibility. That is until he walked into the place.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI felt immediately comfortable, and there are very few places where I feel that way,\u201d he said one recent morning at the tea temple as its employees ran noisy blenders and prepared to open at noon. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely different energy than a bar because there\u2019s no alcohol. It\u2019s much more positive. The Western is a whiskey and tear-in-my-beer type place. This is a whole different vibration than that. I immediately fell in love with the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was so enchanted that he bought the tea house in March from its founder, Tracy Brien Ginzburg, who opened it in 2015 with the idea of creating an alcohol-free, all-ages oasis that its website describes as \u201ca gathering place for creatives, wanderers and lovers of life\u2019s little treasures.\u201d She named it after the Taoist concept of \u201cwu wei,\u201d which literally translates to \u201ceffortless action.\u201d In other words, don\u2019t sweat it. Just chill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Marin County, the land of doing, doing, doing and the need to do so much more,\u201d Ginzburg said. \u201cI wanted to play on the opposite side of that coin; I wanted to play in the land of not doing, of doing less. I always felt that I wanted to create a space where people could be themselves versus the persona that they have to put on just to exist in this world. I always considered this space to energetically be one where you walk in and you get to relax into yourself simply by being there. There\u2019s no facade you need to wear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Fairfax has been affectionately called \u201cMayberry on acid,\u201d you\u2019d think the Wu Wei Tea Temple would have been an instant hit. But despite its hippie history, the town took a few years to grok the Wu Wei culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a nice slow grow,\u201d Ginzburg said. \u201cIt took a while for it to take off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wu Wei Tea Temple boasts a coterie of devoted customers who have been coming in since it opened its doors 11 years ago at 1820 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Fairfax.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s had many chapters and gone through its own evolution,\u201d said Ricky Appelbaum, a Fairfax life coach who\u2019s been part of the Wu Wei scene from day one. \u201cI\u2019ve seen how it evolved into what\u2019s kind of like a cultural institution around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another longtime regular, Olivia Marichi, credits the tea temple\u2019s success to Ginzburg\u2019s \u201cmajor power to unite people. She knows how to open hearts and let the conversation flow.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the day, the place serves as a combination cafe and workspace. You\u2019ll find many folks quietly settled in with tea and laptops. But at night there\u2019s a lot of \u201ceffortless doing\u201d that gets done at the Wu Wei Tea Temple, or, as the regulars call it, \u201cthe Wu.\u201d There\u2019s Trivia Tuesdays, tarot and astrology readings on Thursdays, a DJ house music dance party on Fridays and a well-attended open mic on Sundays.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll drive by at night sometimes and it\u2019s the most happening place in town,\u201d D\u2019Antonio said. \u201cIt\u2019s got some magnetism to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

Saturdays are often reserved for live music on the Wu Wei Tea Temple\u2019s small stage. The place has a reputation for presenting mostly acoustic world music and musicians, such as Pakistani singer Sukhawat Ali Khan, one of its most popular performers. Late to the party, I discovered the place only recently when I went there for the first time to hear a couple of musician friends of mine accompany the West African singer and guitarist Z\u00e9 Manel.<\/p>\n

On that warm night the audience sat on low couches and Oriental pillows along the walls and at an L-shaped bar in the back. Since the place only holds about 50 people, it was comfortably \u201ccrowded.\u201d By the second set, the crowd was on its feet, dancing and clapping. There\u2019s no cover charge. A hat gets passed a couple of times an evening for donations for the musicians. A duo called Sonic Bloom, featuring Gabe Harris and Daniel Berkman, is on the calendar for Aug. 6.<\/p>\n

Food and drinks, featuring tea from Marin County tea pioneer David Lee Hoffman as well as kava, bone broth, various exotic elixirs and Middle Eastern-style fare, are served on coffee tables made from sliced tree trunks. I had a drink called Golden Milk, a house specialty, that I can\u2019t wait to have again.<\/p>\n

A casbah of color, the Wu Wei Tea Temple\u2019s exotic decor features a phalanx of ritualistic-looking masks by Point Reyes Station artist Ernesto Sanchez on the wall opposite the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy art is spiritual in nature and also has a mystical slant,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI see my art as a portal, which falls into the concept of the Wu Wei in that when you\u2019re entering the tea temple, you\u2019re entering another realm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since she sold the business, Ginzburg, 55, who has a home in Larkspur\u2019s Madrone Canyon and lives in Israel, has been on a wu wei journey of her own, hiking the Appalachian Trail for two months with her husband and preparing for a 300-mile canoe trip on the Yukon River in Canada and Alaska.<\/p>\n

As the Wu Wei Tea Temple\u2019s new owner, D\u2019Antonio, who\u2019s 49 and lives in Forest Knolls with his partner, Alicia, a Kaiser nurse, and their three school-age children, is delighted to be part of what is a very different milieu for him. He was introduced to the Wu Wei Tea Temple by the wealthy tech entrepreneur Chris Hulls, who can often be spotted playing chess there in the afternoons. With Hulls, D\u2019Antonio is co-executive director of the Point Reyes Good Luck Fund, a nonprofit that Hulls seeded with $15 million of his own money to buy and restore historic buildings and properties in West Marin, including the Old Western. The Wu Wei Tea Temple is not part of that enterprise, which is fitting. The tea temple is a singular entity, unlike anything else.<\/p>\n

As a co-founder of the Marin band San Geronimo, D\u2019Antonio, a singer-songwriter and guitarist, has long been a prominent player on the local rock scene. This weekend, he\u2019ll be playing with the Terrapin Roadshow at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre in San Rafael. When it comes to the Wu Wei Tea Temple, though, he has no intention of turning it into anything other than what it is and what it has always been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 100% hands off at this point,\u201d he said. \u201cThey tried to get me to curate the music and bring San Geronimo in here, but I said absolutely not. You don\u2019t want a rock band. The Wu Wei is not that. I don\u2019t want to mess with the magic that\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Contact Paul Liberatore at libpaul45@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeremy D\u2019Antonio, a rock musician who co-owns the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station, thought the Wu Wei Tea Temple in Fairfax might be a little too woo-woo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nMarin rocker named new owner of Fairfax\u2019s Wu Wei Tea Temple - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marin rocker named new owner of Fairfax\u2019s Wu Wei Tea Temple - 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