I’ll never forget the night I packed the final batch of my things in my station wagon and drove away for the last time. She even made me take the cat, which I guess was fair. It was 1999, and I was single again, driving to my new one-bedroom apartment. Might as well learn to cook, I thought, as I pulled into G&G Supermarket. Starting with something easy—I think it was stir-fry—I asked an employee for tips about kimchi. Quickly, I learned that everyone working at the store had ideas on cooking, and was happy to help craft my clueless ambition into edible dinners for one on a nightly basis. Those dinners are now for two—whoops, three, actually!—but they’re still bought at G&G. They’ve got a huge selection, great prices and scads of lesser common items that continue to pique my imagination after 13 years. Markets that take your whole paycheck try to seem home-spun with handwritten signs and folksy decor, but G&G’s vast collection of vintage promotional items and signs from the 1980s (the Virginia Slims conveyor belt splitter!) are proof that the Gong family has been embedded in the community for generations. And, they occasionally sell weird things, like antique telephone wire insulators (see photo). You ain’t gonna see that at Safeway, that’s for sure. 1211 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa, 707.546.6877; 701 Sonoma Mountain Pkwy., Petaluma, 707.765.1198.
The 25 Days Project is an online series through the month of December spotlighting some of our favorite local businesses. Read more about the project here, and about our commitment to shopping locally here.
