Sutter Creek Provisions is a Civil War-era brick gathering spot that is also an artisan meat market , music hall and tap house .
Like Sexton , the Michels also saw an influx of tourists from the Bay Area and Southern California during the highwater mark of the pandemic . Jay thinks that some changes Sutter Creek was forced to make at that time — especially adding large outdoor dining sections along its Main Street that may be made permanent — created a special setting that will remain lodged in visitors ’ minds .
“ The street just completely comes alive ,” Jay says . “ It has that same kind of energy you feel in the streets of Paris . In Sutter Creek , in the past , there was a big debate about doing this . It ’ s not theoretical anymore . We know people love it .”
Victoria Spainhower , co-owner of the coffee house Choc-O-Latte , says she definitely met a number of visitors who ’ d fallen in love with Sutter Creek after discovering it through a pandemic-driven serendipity .
“ It ’ s a lot of , ‘ Oh , we ’ re not going to go to Disney World — we can ’ t — but we ’ ve never been to Sutter Creek before ,’” Spainhower says . “ Coming out of COVID , tourism is only going to go up . People who find this town think it looks like something out of a Hallmark movie .”
New discoveries
Dusk lights a bubblegum blush in the clouds drifting over Winters ’ Main Street , some lamps warming the avenue ’ s ornate masonry and century-old bricks until they match the champagne glow casting on the nearby rise of mountains . Inside one of the stone shop fronts , Dan and Corinne Martinez are meeting with their team at Berryessa Gap Vineyards to celebrate three new wine releases . Dan Jr . and Corinne are the children of the late Dan Martinez Sr ., a lifelong farmer in western Yolo County whose work in 1969 around growing special parasite-resistant rootstock was a gamechanger for California ’ s wine industry , according to his family .
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