Marcie and Dave Waldron brought a coffee-and dirt-stained 1996 copy of Jerry’s and my “Sonoma Valley – The Secret Wine County” to a gathering at Mary Evelyn Arnold’s house a few months ago. It was our first guidebook of what turned into a series of guides to wine regions of the West Coast. Dave had found the dirty book while cleaning out a client’s property, not exactly a compliment, but that’s OK.
Several of us sat around a table reminiscing about all the Sonoma restaurants and other businesses that have disappeared in the last 20 years, and there are lots of them. In fact, 45 restaurants and cafes reviewed in that book – gone. So many businesses disappeared as the town morphed from an agricultural and historic community into a wine tasting and tourism center.
These were all locally owned by people everyone knew around town and employed people who lived here, because they could afford to and were also part of the community.
Here’s what the guidebook said about the place that is now the hip and trendy Fremont Diner.
Babe’s Burgers & Hot Dogs
Babe’s Burgers is a true concrete block diner where you enter through the eastside swinging door. You walk by several duct-taped virgin vinyl benched booths and Formica tables, turn right around the post and get in line.
The place is packed with locals, drooling in anticipation of their doses of grease, red meat juice and thick fries made to order.
Babe himself cooks the hamburgers when the horses aren’t running anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area. He looks like a guy who has smoked Camels or Lucky Strikes most of his life.
Bouffant Mrs. Babe runs the cash register and takes the orders and gives a few back. If you dare to order a veggie burger she will laugh robustly at you. We inquired about the grilled chicken breast sandwich and she and Babe both sneered that they were frozen and from out of town.
A public telephone hangs on the north wall, and Babe uses it to receive phone orders. No faxes or email here. Supposedly they serve espresso drinks, but no customer I know has ever seen one.
One sign on the wall advises ‘Good food takes time, if you can’t wait leave.’ And ‘Any soft drink without ice is 20 cents extra.”
Windowsills and little shelves were loaded with Babe’s collection of model muscle cars and 59-cent baskets for sale. No credit cards. RIP.
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