New seafood restaurant set to open in Winslow next month

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026

A new seafood restaurant, Sweetwater Tavern, is slated to open in downtown Winslow March 17 in the space that formerly held Restaurant Marché

The restaurant is co-owned by San Francisco Bay Area chef Pete Osborne and Callie Tinney.

“We started this project last summer, and as kind of all projects do, things take longer than you think, but we are eager and ready to get open. We’re bringing a concept to the island that doesn’t currently exist, and there’s a lot of demand for it. We’ve heard a lot of people who are really excited about having an oyster bar on the island. We really hope to fill a niche that just hasn’t been filled yet. And, in terms of our customer base and what we’re looking at, we really said all the way throughout, we really want to be a place for locals. We want to have a good bar scene. We want to have an approachable menu that you can come to and eat at a couple times a week…everything that we get from the ferries and tourists and everything that comes with that, that’s all a bonus cherry on top,” Osborne said.

The remodel includes a new 10-seat bar, joining three rooms into one large space, a sun room, and an expanded outside dining space, which Osborne said is roughly 50% bigger than Marché had.

Osborne said he hopes to contribute to the elevated restaurant scene on the island, and that seafood is the anchor of the menu, adding, “We have a wood-fired grill. We’re going to cook a world-class burger and some great steaks on that as well. But you know, aside from oysters and other shellfish, we’re looking at local fish, cooking whatever’s in season, and simple food, not tweezer food,” he said.

The chef said Sweetwater Tavern will be an upscale casual restaurant. “You can come in wearing shorts and flip flops, and you know you can have a gourmet meal,” he said. The name is inspired by Sweetwater, a variety of oyster grown by California-based Hog Island Oyster Company, and the Mill Valley, CA music venue Sweetwater.

“More operatively, the word tavern is really what we wanted to hone in on. We didn’t want to be a bistro. We don’t want to be a cafe. We’re not a pub. A tavern is a place that serves food and drinks,” Osborne said.

Regarding adult beverages, Osborne said Sweetwater Tavern will have craft cocktails, beer on tap, and a carefully selected wine list that pairs well with seafood. “Part of that bar scene is being able to watch your oysters shucked right in front of you. The way we have our oyster bar (is) integrated into that. So that’s an interactive experience. Being able to talk with the shucker (and) learn more about where your oysters are from the bar is really like the heartbeat of our whole experience,” he said.