The Sardine Can offers delicious seafood and an unbeatable view of the Vallejo waterfront

VALLEJO — The Sardine Can restaurant oozes old school charm in its prime Vallejo location overlooking Mare Island. It’s the kind of place where the waitresses call you “honey” and never let your glass of water go empty, where recipes beloved by regulars have stayed on the menu for decades, and wooden mermaids and maritime symbols dotting the walls make you feel like a seafaring traveler inside a cozy ship.

In the last month, owner Mary Baxley has brought a rare novelty to this restaurant steeped in tradition. The Sardine Can is now working with DoorDash to bring its expansive, seafood-based menu to your home. Baxley said that she resisted DoorDash entreaties for a long time but figured it might be useful during the winter months, when all restaurant business — not just her own — slows down.

In its first incarnation, The Sardine Can, located at 0 Harbor Way,  was just a humble hamburger joint with five tables inside a small white trailer. Although the year it opened is not clear, it has been around for at least five decades. Nanette DuValle Jones took over the restaurant in 1985.

During the 23 years she owned it, she made a lot of improvements, transforming the tiny trailer into a full-on restaurant that sits 100 people. She added a deck in front and a patio in the back overlooking the bay. Over time, she covered the patio, which became an indoor space with big windows to enjoy the view.

Baxley had been a waitress at The Sardine Can for about twelve years when DuValle decided to sell it. Baxley had previously owned a restaurant in Vacaville, Pluto’s Hot Dogs. She let it go because it was too hard to run a business while raising three young kids. She started to waitress instead in The Sardine Can, which she had known since she was a child, because it provided a comfortable weekday schedule and an ambience she loved.

Now, faced with the opportunity to buy it, she felt torn.

“I didn’t want to strap myself to a restaurant,” Baxley said, “but it was a nice restaurant. It’s on the water. We have regular customers. Everything about the restaurant I loved. So we thought, the kids are all out of school and in college. Now it’s the time to do it.”

That was in 2008. The transition was seamless, because ever since she had started as a waitress, Baxley took over some of the management responsibilities. 

For the first six months, Baxley put in long days, seven days a week. But once she felt like things had settled, she started to cut back on her hours. 

Baxley, however, acknowledges that she likes to control everything because she feels no one will do it as well as her. “I’m just a control person,” she admitted. “I strongly believe that if you have a business, you have to be there. But I have cut back a lot, from seven days a week, to five, to three. I wouldn’t do less than three because I am cramming everything I used to do in those three days.”

Although Baxley is the owner, she considers The Sardine Can a family business. Her daughter, daughter-in-law and several nephews and nieces wait tables there. And Baxley, aside from managing the business, also waitresses. 

“I love waitressing,” she said. “I love talking to people. That’s how you feel connected. And that’s also how I see everything that’s going on all the way around. I could not have a job where I sat all day. I have to be up on my feet and going.”

Having family members as employees can be challenging, but Baxley doesn’t see it that way. “To me, because you are family, you have to do better,” she said. “I tell my younger nephews and nieces, ‘Hey, you’re family, you can’t get away with it. You have to set the standard.’”

Aside from family members, the employees at The Sardine Can are also a family of sorts. Most of them, including the cooks, have been there for decades. And that’s not the only thing with staying power. The menu hasn’t changed much since DuValle bought the restaurant in the mid-80s.

“When I first took over, there were changes I wanted to make,” Baxley explained, “but I quickly learned that I couldn’t. People did not want anything changed.” That goes not only for the menu, but also for the furniture. The restaurant used to have picnic tables and benches indoors. Longtime customers were adamantly against changing them.

Finally this year, Baxley replaced them. “Those same people were the ones coming now and telling me, ‘I need a chair,’” Baxley said with a laugh, “so I was like, ‘You know what? I think we can get rid of the picnic tables now and get tables and chairs.’”

The favorites on the menu have also stayed the same. The most popular item is the fish and chips, which Baxley says it’s fresh cod, hand-dipped in beer batter. Other popular items are the crab sandwich, gumbo, jambalaya, cioppino and clam chowder. 

Baxley is very proud of the quality of the food they serve. “Everything here is homemade,” she emphasized. “Homemade tartar sauce, homemade cocktail sauce, all the dressings. Nothing is bought, nothing comes in a can. And that’s one of the reasons why I think the restaurant does so well. The food is made to order. If someone wants extra gravy, we’ve got to make more gravy.”

Baxley credits DuValle with this food ethic. It was DuValle who started making everything from scratch, from her own recipes. And those are the same recipes The Sardine Can uses today. Baxley has added a few dishes, like the French dip or the gumbo, which used to be a special and now is on the regular menu, but that’s about it. 

One thing that has changed, unwittingly, is that the Sunday jazz sessions that used to run in Spring and Summer were canceled during Covid and have not yet come back. Baxley wants to launch them again. “I have to call the musicians, because they were also always the same musicians,” she said.

For regular customers, The Sardine Can has become as comfortable and welcoming as a second home. “People that come in are like, ‘I remember that my grandpa used to bring me here when I was a little girl,’” Baxley said. “That’s really cool to hear.”