The crew that spent two construction seasons replacing the Lambert Lane bridge picked Pilar Eschevarria of Mosswood Market to be the first civilian to officially cross it. The Anderson Valley Advertiser reported in mid-September that the honor was the crew's thanks for the breakfasts and lunches they had relied on through 2025 and 2026.
A Boonville café feeding a bridge crew sets the tone for the whole season. Across a few weeks in September and early October, several of the town's fixtures have been handed on, restored or brought back. The grocery store is changing owners. The bookstore reopened with its original owner. The sake bar on Highway 128 is growing. A temporary bridge that stood for more than a decade has finally been replaced. None of these places closed. That alone makes this fall in Boonville stand out.
A Temporary Bridge That Lasted Twelve Years
The Lambert Lane bridge crosses Robinson Creek on County Road 123A, behind the Boonville Hotel. The AVA reported that heavy rains in 2014 washed out the old bridge's underpinnings, and a temporary Bailey bridge carried traffic from then on. Mendocino County describes the new structure as a wider, two-lane concrete and steel bridge with bike lanes, replacing a structurally deficient concrete span. The contractor was West Coast Contractors, Inc. of Coos Bay, Oregon.
The project ran past its first schedule. A county timeline quoted by the AVA when prep work began in June 2025 expected completion by November 30, 2025. By June 2026, the county's own report pointed to the summer 2026 construction season instead. County board documents say the work is fully reimbursed through the federal Highway Bridge Program, with toll credits covering the local match.
The bridge matters more because the larger road project through town is on hold. The AVA reported on March 10, 2026 that Caltrans had paused its Highway 128 redesign through Boonville, which runs from SR 253 to Mountain View Road, for about two years because of statewide budget limits. The main street will look the same for a while. The side street behind the hotel has its permanent crossing.
Three Generations at the Market, Then Redwood Valley
The AVA's September 30 "Valley People" column called the new ownership of Anderson Valley Market "the biggest news in Boonville." Three generations of the Thomasson family are passing the store to two new owners from Redwood Valley, identified only by first name as Alex and Anthony. The column added that "from all accounts the new owners are fitting in just fine."
The family's history at the store runs about half a century. Ruben Thomasson's 2005 obituary in the Ukiah Daily Journal says he and his family took over the market in the early 1970s and that he ran it for more than 30 years.
The legal side is still finishing. A bulk-sale notice dated September 25 names the buyer as Anderson Valley Market & Spirits, Inc. of Redwood Valley and the seller as Anderson Valley Market, Inc. It sets the transfer for October 12, 2026, subject to approval by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The assets in the sale include inventory, equipment, goodwill, the off-sale general liquor license and the business name itself. So the sign at 14175 Highway 128 stays. The buyers bought the store's identity along with its shelves.
Hedgehog Books Comes Back to the Train Car
A few hundred feet from the market's sign, another Boonville fixture reopened over the summer. Dawn Emery Ballantine closed Hedgehog Bookstore in 2023 for health reasons. According to a September 17 announcement in the AVA, she is back in the same train car just off Highway 128 with an all-new, carefully curated stock of slightly used books.
"I'm so excited to have Hedgehog Books open again, surrounded by books and with twice the space for book lovers to browse." Dawn Emery Ballantine, in the Anderson Valley Advertiser
The reopening has already pulled in local authors. Dot Brovarney's Mendocino Refuge: Lake Leonard & Reeves Canyon is now on the shelves. Brovarney said she had "always wanted this book available for Anderson Valley readers" and gave Ballantine's return the credit for making it happen. A bookstore that stocks a book about a Mendocino watershed for readers in the next watershed over is doing what a town bookstore is for.
SŌBŌ Splits Its Grant Between the Cooler and the Classroom
The same idea of renewing rather than replacing shows up at SŌBŌ Sake Bar & Sushi, 14251 Highway 128. The Ukiah Daily Journal reported on September 10 that owner and chef Christina Jones received a $5,000 resilience grant from the California Restaurant Foundation and PG&E. She plans to put part of it toward equipment, particularly refrigeration for the perishable seafood she works with. The rest goes to marketing and to expanding beyond dinner service into sake tastings, classes, pairing events and small-scale festivals.
"I want SŌBŌ to become a hub for sake education and experiences in Mendocino County," Jones told the paper. For now, SŌBŌ serves dinner Friday through Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m. The plan keeps the small dining room she already built and adds new programming around it.
The Vineyards Run on the Same Kind of Continuity
The handoff pattern goes back a long way here. When the Mendocino Voice visited Husch Vineyards in Philo this summer, co-owner Zac Robinson described a family that bought the property from the Husch family in the 1970s and has run it for three generations. The founders' vineyard manager, Al White, retired last year after 50 years in the same vineyard.
That August 21 story also explains why October in the valley feels further along than the calendar says. Doug Stewart, board president of the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association, called 2026 "a record-breaking vintage in terms of how early it is." Robinson put it down to a "Goldilocks year" of steady warmth with no growth-stunting heat spikes or cold snaps. By September 18, a post shared in the AVA from the high school's agriculture department, which was looking for a bucket of grapes for its fair booth, said that "harvest is almost over."
Robinson was also frank that the valley isn't immune to the wider wine downturn. Anderson Valley Pinot Noir sells for roughly double the per-ton price of Pinot grown elsewhere in the county, he said, yet some Pinot vineyards here aren't being farmed this year. The appellation covers 57,600 acres of the Navarro River watershed, but by his count only about 2,500 acres are planted to vines.
The Fair Is Behind Us, and the Farm Weekends Are Ahead
The valley's own late-summer traditions have already happened. The 102nd Mendocino County Fair & Apple Show ran September 18 through 20 at the Boonville fairgrounds. The AVA's October 4 roundup named Rebekah Toohey the Anderson Valley Chili Cook-Off winner for the second year running, with Gwynn Gowan and Jessica Walker also among the winners.
What's left on the fall calendar is mostly farm and food programming run by the valley's long-standing names:
- October 9, 16 and November 6, 5 to 7 p.m. Anderson Valley Brewing hosts Jared Nels, BanjerDan and Three For Silver, which is led by Lucas Warford, at 17700 Boonville Road.
- October 17. The Apple Farm's Saturday Supper features Minus Tide Wines. Arrival starts at 4:30 p.m., appetizers at 5 and dinner around 5:30. The all-inclusive price is $195 per person, and the farm is at 18501 Greenwood Road in Philo.
- October 17, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Foursight Wines holds its members-only fall club pickup party at 14475 Highway 128.
- October 23 to 25. The Boonville Hotel's Harvest, Farm, and Food Weekend centers on Filigreen Farm, the Boonville Barn Collective and the Philo Apple Farm.
- October 31, 6 to 11 p.m. The Anderson Valley Grange's Haunted Halloween Hoedown at 9800 Highway 128 features Hot Buttered Rum, Deep Thicket Dwellers and local DJ Nasty Nate, plus costume contests, a haunted maze and family pumpkin activities. Admission is $30 for adults and $10 for children, and children under five get in free.
- November 6 to 8. The Boonville Hotel's "Cook, Eat, & Gather" weekend with Karen Bates and Johnny Schmitt brings in the Philo Apple Farm and Pennyroyal Farm.
- November 7 and 8. Foursight pairs mushroom bites with its estate Pinot Noirs as part of tasting reservations, and walk-ins are welcome as space allows.
The Apple Farm describes its Philo orchard as more than 1,300 heirloom fruit trees, mostly apples. It shows up twice on the Boonville Hotel's fall schedule and once on its own, which makes it the busiest thread running through the season's calendar.
For anyone driving to Ukiah this month, Caltrans showed no restrictions on SR 128 as of the evening of October 4. The AVA reports that SR 253 is open, but its ramps at U.S. 101 face intermittent overnight closures from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. during October roadwork.
When a store, a vineyard or a working ranch in Anderson Valley changes hands well, the new owners take on its history along with the deed, and we treat that history as part of the asset. If you own one of the valley's long-held properties and are thinking about who carries it forward, Kevin McDonald is glad to talk it through with you quietly and on your schedule. Get in Touch.
