Heed the siren call of Crockett, the Bay Area small town that time forgot

Miami Herald

16 hours ago

Crockett is a small town with an oversized pull. Its intriguing history threads through the cross-Pacific sugar trade, perilous smelting of precious metals and strange crimes involving an "Ocean's Eleven"-style gold heist and intricate networks of underground tunnels.
With charming restaurants and a bustling music scene, it's also a great place to have a day trip. But where to begin?
Filling up the caffeine reserves will be Priority No. 1 for many folks. In town, the new Calaca Coffee pours strong java with a Mexican twist. Try a cafe de olla cold brew with cinnamon and piloncillo (raw sugar) or a Xoco latte with cacao and espresso - and if you're feeling naughty, top it off with banana or tres-leches cream.
Glommed onto an old church like a retro barnacle, Revival Coffee is a trailer-based operation sporting a bohemian open-air porch with comfy furniture and board games. "Liquid pie" is a good way to describe the coffee. There's a Cherry Jubilee with white chocolate, a Coconut Cream Pie Latte and a Huckleberry Mocha, giving customers the chance to slyly comment to their significant other: "No, you're my huckleberry." The fruit-forward drinks seem cast down from the berry-rich fields of Oregon, and for a breakfast snack there's biscuits and gravy.
The sweet offerings around town seem appropriate given its raison d'etre for a long while was sugar. The California and Hawaiian (C&H) Sugar Refining Company celebrates its 120th year in Crockett – whose nickname is "Sugar City" – in 2026. While C&H recently stopped importing from Hawaii, it's still a major player in the market, producing 14% of the cane sugar in the United States. In local vintage shops you'll find its logo emblazoned on Hawaiian shirts, also in timeworn cookbooks with recipes like Hawaiian coconut pudding and frosted grapes on pine boughs.
Hungry for more history? Head down to the Crockett Historical Museum, squeezed into a former railroad station by the sugar factory. (Note: it's closed for repairs until July 7.) Inside you'll find treasures like California's last telephone switchboard and a 468-pound taxidermied sturgeon, the largest ever caught in San Pablo Bay. There are informative news articles like one whose headline reads, "UFOs Buzz Crockett Six Say Soberly."
That's probably not true – the "soberly" part, as Crockett is a historical hotbed of drinking. Among the 45-plus bars that hung their flag in this tiny community during the last century were Chuck & Henry, Dick & Johnny, Toots and Gully and the by-comparison lonely-sounding Ray's Corner, which poured booze for 103 years until closing in 2004.
A train car transporting wine parked in Crockett in 1920, the year Prohibition started. The result was like something out of "28 Days Later" with locals scenting blood in the air. "When the car was discovered on a recent Sunday many of the populace dashed madly to the railroad yards equipped with spigots, garden hose and hand axes," the Los Angeles Herald reported. "The car was entered and some 3000 gallons siphoned into buckets, bottles, kegs, demijohns and all manner of containers."
There's fun history to be gleaned here about the old Selby smelting works, once the largest refining company in the West for gold, silver and lead. It was bulldozed in the 1970s, but locals keep it alive sharing memories on the public Crockett-history Facebook page. "When you woke up there was always a layer of gray dust on the porches," recalls one person. Laments another: "(M)y great grandfather fell into a smelting pot I believe never made it home soo sad."
Selby was the scene of one of the biggest gold heists in contemporary U.S. history. In 1901, a former worker named Jack Winters spent 6 weeks tunneling through dirt and brick to reach the company's vault and he absconded with half a ton of bullion. He lowered the treasure into the muck of the Carquinez Strait, planning to retrieve it bit by bit. Instead, he was quickly caught and divers recovered the haul, though that doesn't stop fortune-hunters from seeking the gold to this day.
A nice way to burn off some calories is to explore Crockett Hills Regional Park. From the staging area, the Crockett Ranch Trail trail leads up a beautifully forested path to a long tunnel under the Cummings Skyway. Pass through this dark orifice and you'll emerge on the other side of the hill with blazing sun and a panoramic visage of the San Francisco Bay that can only be called stunning. The random cow that sometimes grazes here might agree with an appreciative bellow.
Cocktail hour approaches, and beckoning hard is surf-and-turf institution The Dead Fish. Named after the owner's nonna - she couldn't always recall the species of sea creatures she cooked, so she called everything "dead fish" - the restaurant offers roasted Dungeness crab and Omaha prime rib in a kitsch-filled compound on the cliff. The views of huge ships passing through the Strait are unbeatable, as are the "Drink-Like-a-Fish" cocktails for only $10. A Crabby Mood Martini or Bloody Shark served in a chilled wine glass? Delightful!
Many of Crockett's hidden charms reveal themselves to those wandering with no real purpose. The Epperson Gallery is a spacious showcase for California landscapes and quirky animal sculptures. The Cat Vintage offers antiques and clothing and plans to open a Cat Museum this summer, full of priceless artifacts - to cat lovers, anyway - like feline dolls, trinkets, shirts, staplers and more Garfields than you can shake a pan of lasagna at. Ask nicely and the owner might pull back the curtain on the in-progress museum.
Club Tac is a sleepy dive bar with drink specials and a wall of certificates that, upon closer inspection, turn out to be from E Clampus Vitus, a men's-only organization devoted to the history of the Western Gold Rush. Among its purported members were Gene Autry, Ronald Reagan and the famous San Francisco eccentric Emperor Norton.
For dinner, The Sicilian serves up traditional Italian plates like penne amatriciana or antipasti with burrata-stracciatella and marinated artichokes. The restaurant may or may not be named in tribute to the eponymous 1987 movie starring local tough-guy actor Aldo Ray.
Lucia's Craft Sandwich closes in the afternoon, but if you were fortunate enough to pick something up, they're sizable enough for dinner. It's no exaggeration to say Lucia's is one of the best sandwich shops in the Bay, focused on local produce and top-quality meats. The mortadella with artichokes and fresh ricotta dances between delicate and decadent, and the specials are always worth consideration: a porchetta with orange and fennel-pollen salad, say, or a croque madame with Mornay sauce, squash blossoms and runny egg.
Crockett may have had dozens of bars in its history but today is down to a handful, a great one being Toot's Tavern. Said to be the longest continuously operating bar in Contra Costa County, the wood-shrouded watering hole switches from sleepy neighborhood hangout in the afternoon to high-energy music joint at night. Patrons might stumble upon a thrash-metal band, a Van Halen tribute, an electro DJ or a 17-piece jazz ensemble - here, anything's possible.
There's also rumored to be a tunnel in Toot's basement that smugglers used during Prohibition to get resupplies from the waterfront. Some locals say it's a myth, but the resident bartender swears it's true.
"All of Crockett has tunnels under it," he said on a recent visit. "There were tons of bars during Prohibition and you can see the holes open up by the water. Most are bricked over, and I wouldn't recommend seeking them out. Yeah, it's kind of a weird old town."
If you go ...
Calaca Coffee: Open 7 a.m.- 2 p.m. at 605 Second Ave., Crockett; calacacoffee.com
Revival Coffee: Open 5 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 6 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at 1 Rolph Park Drive, Crockett; therevivalcoffeeco.com
Crockett Historical Museum: Closed until July 7, then open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday at 900 Loring Ave., Crockett; crockettmuseum.org
Crockett Hills Regional Park: Summer hours through August are 8 a.m.-8 p.m. daily at 1300 Crockett Blvd., Crockett; ebparks.org/parks/crockett-hills
The Dead Fish: Open noon-9:30 daily (last seating 8 p.m.) at 20050 San Pablo Ave., Crockett; thedeadfish.com
Epperson Gallery: Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 1400 Pomona St., Crockett; eppersongallery.com
The Cat Vintage: Open noon-6 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at 720 2nd Ave., Crockett; thecatvintage.com
The Sicilian: Open 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday at 601 2nd Ave., Crockett; thesiciliancrockett.com
Lucia's Craft Sandwich: Open 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 611 2nd Ave., Crockett; luciascraftsandwich.com
Toot's Tavern: Open noon-1:30 a.m. daily at 627 2nd Ave., Crockett; tootstavern.com
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