Dry Creek General Store
This green-and-white clapboard store has stood at the Dry Creek crossroads since 1881 and was a speakeasy through Prohibition.12
Why go
The store sits near Lambert Bridge, on a road that otherwise runs from one tasting room to the next.1 Harvest crews collect sandwiches at the counter while dressed-up visitors drink wine on the porch.1 The adjoining bar is back, saddle barstools and all, after a hard eighteen months: the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control suspended the licence for 47 days in January 2017 over open containers outside the drinking areas and a bar running after food service ended, and 47 days crossed a county threshold set at 45.21
Order this / avoid
- Order: a deli sandwich to take away.1
- Avoid: the parking lot at peak season without a plan. It fills, and the store now pays a monitor from May to October because cars were blocking a neighbor's driveway.2
What locals & experts say
- Rose Zoia, a lawyer for the neighbors, at the planning hearing:
No one wants to shut down the store. My clients, and all of us, agree that is a community treasure, so I hope we can put that issue behind us.
2 - Gina Gallo, the owner, on the eighteen months without a licence:
Not being able to sell beer and wine for more than a year has caused severe financial hardship, putting the store's future in jeopardy while causing a great disruption for its customers.
2
Good to know
- There is a weekly barbecue, and it is one of the store's busiest days. I have not found anything that describes what comes off it.2
- The permit added a bike lane along Dry Creek Road, between the streetside parking and the traffic.2
- I have not found published hours or a current menu, so call before you drive out.
Verdict
could-visit — Buy a deli sandwich and eat it on the porch. Cellar crews come in for takeout through harvest, on a road where every other door is a tasting room. The bar is back with its saddle stools after a bad stretch: the ABC suspended the licence for 47 days in January 2017, two days past the county's use-permit threshold, and the store spent about eighteen months unable to sell beer or wine.