Page 148 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SPRING 2021 REDISCOVERING CALIFORNIA'S CENTRAL COAST

Blink, and you will miss the sign that leads driv-
ers to Randsburg one mile off HI 395. This “living
ghost town” reached its heyday in 1895 with the
discovery of gold and the creation of the Rand
Mining District.
Randsburg, we learned, has served as a back-
drop for dozens of old-time and contemporary
westerns. Perhaps the most popular backdrop is
the Randsburg General Store built in 1896
(www.randsburggeneralstore.com.) So enamored
of the surroundings were Brad Meyers and his
wife Carol, that they purchased not only the store
but the whole town. Months, if not years of
restoration went into the upgrade of the general
store and Randsburg’s main street.
Take a seat at the marble-topped counter be-
neath shelves lined with old soda bottles, antique
cookie tins, and mining magazines, and you will
feel as though you have been hired as an extra in
an old movie. Order a Muddy River (Chocolate
Soda Phosphate) served in a quart jar, or an old-
fashioned sarsaparilla root beer float.
If hunger pangs persist, order a General Store
breakfast which has attained international fame.
Brad will reward you with a styrofoam cupful of
calorie-packed biscuits and gravy:
“I use cups so it stays warm all the way down
when you walk around town,” he explains. So dig
in, keep your ears on alert, and allow the jovial,
white-haired host to launch into the town’s lore:
“Forty-eight people live here. Three of them we
have never seen!”
He recounts how the store’s previous owner,
spry 97-year old Olga, once admonished Brad Pitt
not to swear in her presence. A tipsy Pitt dis-
obeyed “and she dragged him out of the store by
the ears!” Meyers relates with glee. Clutching
your cup of biscuits and gravy, amble along the
main street to the Hole in the Wall Mercantile
filled with a jumble of antiques and mining sup-
plies, or peek into the windows of the White
House Saloon.
Ridgecrest, and hour to the north, is an access
point to Death Valley. Rimming the town like
malevolent shark’s teeth are the aptly named
Sharks Teeth Hills. A 3-mile loop lined with fast
food joints encircles the commercial center.

148 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2021