The Heritage Room features an exhibit on the restaurants, saloons, grocery stores and smokehouses in Trinidad’s past. The Big Four, Pinkham’s Saloon, Rocco’s Saloon, Katy’s Smokehouse, Trinidad Bay Smokehouse, The Eatery (formerly The Foxes & the Flying Bridge), Larrupin’ Cafe (formerly Manning’s & the Colonial Inn), Lighthouse Grill (formerly The Bitery, Boompa’s, The Blue Heron, Kahish’s Catch Cafe and Loz), The Seascape, Sunset, Ocean Grove, Moonstone Grill (formerly Merryman’s), Murphy’s Market (formerly Saunders Market and Trinidad Market & Deli), Baker’s Store and more are highlighted.
The Big Four Restaurant on the left and Modern Garage (today’s Chevron site) and the first Saunders Market are indicated.
The BIG FOUR Restaurant, named after railroad barons Huntington, Hopkins, Stanford and Crocker, was prominently located at Main Street and the Old Redwood Highway between 1922 and 1933 and then moved to Arcata. Legend has it that it was constructed from lumber from the old Templar’s Hall on Hector Street next to Holy Trinity Church.
MANNING’S, the COLONIAL, then briefly the NAUTILUS, and since the 1980s LARRUPIN’ CAFE. Dixie Gorrell and Per Inglesborg started LARRUPIN CAFE n owned by Paul Fitzgerald. Dixie and Por first opened Larrupin’ Cafe on Westhaven Drive near the old Hilltop Market before they moved their restaurant to The Colonial building. The Raich and Daniels families previously operated The Colonial Restaurant. The restaurant at the intersection of Patrick’s Point Drive and Stagecoach Road has been a fine dining destination for visitors from far away and locally for decades.
THE EATERY, opened by the Calkins and Kieselhorst families in 1975, expanded with outdoor seating and is currently owned by Betsy Musick who took over operations from her father, Steve Musick and Karen Gorick, who in turn, bought it from the Sam & Carolyn Phillips family. Built on the site of the late 19th century Ocean View Hotel, The Eatery began as THE FLYING BRIDGE CAFE (monu shown on the wall) owned by the Krampert family followed by the FOXES (proprietor unknown).
