Above: Little Lake Garage. Photo by H.H. Wonacott, Parkins Collection, Mendocino County Museum.
What a storied place is Al’s! Until the pandemic closed its doors in 2020, it was the longest-lived business in town, continuously operating since 1901—almost 100 years.
The earliest stories report that at this location was Dryden’s Livery Stable in 1908 or so. ( 1. ) Fitting, then, that in later years the site served the Little Lake Garage and then became Jack Lewis’s Chevrolet dealership.
Left: "A Business Section" Main Street, opposite #2 to Theatre, Little Lake Garage at left. Photographer unknown, Mendocino County Museum.
( 1. ) Tolly Hinton, Mendocino County Remembered: An Oral History, Vol. I, p. 206, by Bruce Levene, William Bradd, Lana Krasner, Gloria Petrykowski, and Rosalie Zucker (Mendocino County Historical Society, Ukiah, 1977).
Al's Redwood Room itself had migrated around town. The Redwood Room bar started in 1901 at the Hotel Willits, fully paneled in old redwood, with a gorgeous historic Brunswick back bar. One might ask how a bar survived Prohibition from 1911 to 1933, when sales of alcoholic beverages violated federal laws. Apparently, Willits maintained some openness both to liquor sales and manufacture. ( 2. )
At some point in the late 1930s or early ’40s, Al Greenberg bought the Redwood Room and added “Al’s” to the sign at the southeast corner of the Hotel Willits. Al had moved to Willits around 1935, said his daughter Joan Greenberg Papantoniadis. “My father loved Willits,” she reminisced. Both her father Al and mother Maria were members of many Willits civic organizations, and Al was a founder of Frontier Days, as well as a supporter of the greatly contested Laytonville-Willits baseball game. Al’s family lived next door to Dr. Babcock on Humboldt Street. Al was also instrumental in establishing the Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital.
Whether because of repeated fires in the Hotel Willits, or plans for the hotel itself to come down in 1952, Al moved his business to a nook at the Van Hotel in the early ’50s. The then owners, Mr. and Mrs. T.H. Dearr, sold the Van Hotel to Al Greenberg around that time.
With Al’s big love of the community, his bar became a central scene for meetings of minds with spirits. During the 1940s and early ’50s, many out-of-town celebrities stopped in at Al’s for a drink while in Willits to visit their old Hollywood pal, former actor Don Coleman, or while heading for a vacation in the redwoods at Benbow. Framed and signed photos covered the walls at Al’s, including those of Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth, and Bing Crosby.
Al’s wife died in 1955, said his daughter, Joan, age fifteen at the time. Sadly, Al himself died of a heart attack in 1959. Joan remembered the crowd at her father’s funeral. He was well loved.
Thomas and Louise Geoghegen and James Jennings were the next owners of Al’s. They in turn sold the bar to Fritz and Juanita Hummel in October, 1964. Juanita already owned the Little Lake Chevrolet building, so in 1970 she turned it into the present site for Al’s, moving the Brunswick back bar and neon sign to their new location, and adding a pizza restaurant.
( 2. ) Jim and Robin Tomes, later owners of Al’s Redwood Room, reported this.
Al’s Redwood Room was fondly remembered as one place in the 1970s that back-to-the-land “hill people” could gather on a weekend night to share news of homesteading life and enjoy music on the jukebox.
The business changed hands twice more, bought in 1999 by Bruce Taylor, who added a patio at the rear of the building to accommodate smokers and those who wished to dine outdoors.
Robin and Jim Tomes purchased the business in July of 2003, adding Thai food to the American menu, all carefully prepared by their daughter-in-law Nong, with the bar jovially tended by their son Dave. The Tomes also added windows to the west façade of the building and fully restored the historic neon sign.
Al’s awaits its next transformation and will surely win the support of the community—as it has historically done—by providing a place to enjoy good friends and good food.
Right: Comtemporary photo of Al's Redwood Room, by Steve Eberhard, courtesy of Steve Eberhard.
Created in collaboration with Kim Bancroft and Judi Berdis and based the 2016 Mendocino County Museum exhibit "Main Street Willits: Then and Now. "Text prepared by Kim Bancroft and select photos prepared by Judi Berdis. We are grateful for their ongoing efforts to preserve our local history.
Special thanks to Kiersten Hanna for project support and assistance.