The spirit of the road house is alive at Buck’s Place in Sonoma.
On the west side of town there is a new yet old restaurant and bar called ‘Buck’s Place.’
Its recent incarnation as Buck’s is relatively new. But as an old building on the corner of Grove Street and Riverside Drive, it can be traced back over 115 years.
As noted by the Sonoma Historical Society in the early days of the 20th Century many families made their way to the El Verano area upValley to a restaurant and dance hall called “Little Switzerland.”
Built in 1906 it was the place to go especially during summer, to enjoy good food, libations and lots of dancing, mostly variations of the polka.
Named in honor of the scores of Swiss immigrants who made Northern California home after the Gold Rush, “Little Switzerland” continued in operation with different owners “off & on” so to speak, until 2017 when it became The Reel Fish House & Grill.
Before automobiles were ubiquitous across America, a train would bring people from San Francisco and surrounding towns into the valley for the summer season.
Still, even as people began to travel more by car into the 1920s & ‘30s, the essential ‘roadhouse’ was a destination that attracted both local and out-of-town visitors.
Something akin to a “Public House” or “wayside inn” in Europe, roadside places were common throughout North America from the late 19th Century onwards.
As historian Doug Beckstead noted on his Roadhouse history website. “Roadhouses sprang-up along the Yukon River in the 1890s to accommodate travelers.”
“At least eleven roadhouses once existed, he said, along the trail between Eagle and Circle in what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.”
“Many roadhouses doubled as a homebase and supply point for fur trapping and mining operations,” said Beckstead. “Others roadhouses were also woodcutting locations and fuel stops for the wood-burning sternwheelers plying the river in summer months,” he added.
With many rural areas in Northern California, some semblance of a roadhouse persisted and this was especially so for an area like Sonoma County. Russian River, Bodega Bay and winding stretches of road leading to Mendocino were ideal for something like a roadhouse or a roadside cafe to emerge.
Enter into the scene, just after World War II, an unusually “flamboyant” personality like that of Texas-native, Juanita Hudspeth Musson.
She and her husband Richard opened a restaurant in Sausalito that garnered as much notoriety as it did acclaim.
Over the next 10 years or more, ‘Juanita’ as she was simply called by everyone, moved her “Galley Restaurant” establishment to several locations.
Financial difficulties and contract disputes, including investigations by the IRS followed her as Juanita was a poor manager.
She was known to be of “eccentric” temperament which often resulted in her becoming either kind and hospitable or rude and belligerent to customers as well as staff.
Regardless, her presence in the San Francisco Bay Area was legendary.
In 1964 upon leaving Sausalito, she reestablished her restaurant to the El Verano area, near Fetters Hot Springs resort. For the next 40 years into old age, Sonoma was her home.
Still, just like what happened in Sausalito, Juanita’s in Sonoma would also have praise for good food, yet there also would be chaos that accompanied it. In 1969 her restaurant was damaged in a fire.
Eventually bouncing back by reopening again, Kathleen Hill, the food & wine editor for the Sonoma Index-Tribune noted.
“Regulars would either be shocked or thrilled to see a monkey on her shoulder. If not a monkey then a parrot here or there, or – when Juanita was so moved – a hoisting of her muumuu to show off her enormous bosom.”
When Juanita died in 2011, a memorial gathering was held at “Little Switzerland.”
Ironically, as “Little Switzerland” became yet another new restaurant venue in 2019 as “Reel & Brand,” new owners and business-partner investors became entangled in litigation in 2022.
Hopefully the “ghost of Juanita” and the chaos that underlined her restaurant ventures in Sonoma will finally be put to rest as Buck’s Place takes over such a storied spot.
The ambiance is welcoming as the food is delicious. Basic Italian-American food, with a bit of artesian sensibility. The Italian meatball sandwich is very satisfying, especially with fresh basil and a sesame seed toasted roll.
With a glass of sparkling red wine out on the back patio listening to live music, what could be better on a summer afternoon or evening!
Yes! The spirit of the road house continues. Any visitor to Sonoma, may this be an invitation. If it so happens that the upscale experience of a winery tour, is tiring- that of the “tasting room experience,” then dear visitor, get-away from the plaza, to relax and be more easy-going of a different place and time, like the rural Sonoma of sentimental legend. Make a visit to Buck’s Place at 401 Grove Street on “the springs-side of town, El Verano. See Buck’s Place website for details.
