The Boonville General Store

The author, daughter Bella & Maria Elena Mendoza.

About 15 years ago when I was living in Philo, working as a pastry chef in Mendocino and baking pastry to sell at a few county farmers’ markets, I started thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up. More than that, I started thinking about how I wanted to spend the best hours of the most productive years of my life. I knew I would make food, and I knew that I wanted to use local ingredients because knowing where my food comes from has always been important to me. I figured that I had worked for enough other people at enough of their restaurants and now I wanted to try working for myself. And commuting 45 minutes each way into a different town was not the reason I had moved to Anderson Valley. Darius and I spent about six months writing a business plan. We wanted to create a place that would feel welcoming to both locals and tourists, a place where someone could spend a morning or afternoon sitting and reading a good book over a great cup of coffee, a place where local farmers could bring their produce left over from the farmers’ market and know it would get the star treatment it deserved. After much writing and drawing, a little graphing, and a touch of soul searching the idea of the Boonville General Store was born.