Harvest at Mendosa's

Some Mendocino businesses are more than stores — they become part of the town's daily rhythm, and Mendosa's is one of the big ones.

Overview

Harvest at Mendosa's stands at 10501 Lansing Street, but the Mendosa name reaches back more than a century.

Today the store is part of the locally and family-owned Harvest Market operation, carrying groceries, meat, produce, deli foods, bakery items, specialty cheese, sushi, health and beauty products, general merchandise, floral items and more.

The story behind the name, however, begins long before Harvest Market arrived. It begins with the Mendosa family and a small Mendocino business that changed direction in 1909.

Location

The store occupies 10501 Lansing Street in the commercial center of Mendocino village, on the east side of Lansing Street near Little Lake Street, where the original Mendosa business stood.

History

Frank and Isabel Mendosa were immigrants from the Azores who settled in Mendocino in the late 19th century and raised a large family. According to research published by the Kelley House Museum, Frank Mendosa lost an arm in a sawmill accident and afterward operated a restaurant and saloon in a small building on the east side of Lansing Street, across from Little Lake Street.

Then came an important change. In 1909, Mendocino voted to ban alcohol sales. Frank responded by converting his restaurant and saloon into a grocery store that also sold dry goods. That change became the beginning of the Mendosa grocery business remembered by generations of Mendocino residents.

Frank's sons became an important part of the store. William A. "Bill" Mendosa left school while young to help support the family. He and his brothers John, Joe and Gus eventually worked together in the business for more than fifty years. The store was not simply someplace to buy food. The Mendosa brothers became familiar figures in everyday Mendocino life. Bill remained associated with the family business until retiring in 1963 following a heart attack.

For longtime residents, the name Mendosa's came to mean much more than an ordinary grocery store. Community memories still reach back to working there in the late 1960s, decades before Harvest became involved. People remember the older store itself — including its wooden floors, the smells of food, and the feeling of a smaller village grocery that belonged to another period of Mendocino life. One memory from the 1990s recalls that customers could once enter or leave through a rear door, another small physical detail that disappeared as the store changed over time.

Harvest Market began in Fort Bragg in May 1985, when Tom Honer opened the original store with a staff of 46. The company remained family-owned and gradually expanded its emphasis on natural, organic, specialty, local and conventional foods. In 2006, Harvest Market expanded into Mendocino by adding Mendosa's, which Harvest itself describes as a family-owned general store founded in 1909.

Importantly, the old name was not erased. The Mendocino store became Harvest at Mendosa's, preserving more than a century of local identity while connecting it with the newer Harvest Market business.

The Building Today

There is something appropriate about the modern store carrying such a wide variety of merchandise. The original Mendosa grocery was also a general store, selling groceries along with dry goods. More than a century later, people still describe Harvest at Mendosa's as the kind of place where it seems possible to find almost anything.

The products have changed. The building has changed. The way groceries are sold has certainly changed. But the basic job of the place has remained remarkably familiar: give Mendocino a store where people can get the things they need.

Why It Matters

Few surviving Mendocino businesses can draw such a direct line through the village's everyday history. The story stretches from Frank Mendosa's restaurant and saloon, through Mendocino's 1909 prohibition vote, the conversion to a grocery and dry-goods business, decades of work by the Mendosa brothers, generations of local employees and customers, and finally Harvest Market's arrival in 2006.

Harvest modernized the operation, but keeping Mendosa's in the name preserved something important. It reminds everyone walking through the door that this is not just another grocery store. It is the current chapter of a Mendocino business tradition that began in 1909.

Community Memories

Community responses to the original post show just how many different generations of Mendosa's are still remembered.

One former employee recalled working at the store in the late 1960s. Another remembered spending 13 years working for Harvest and looking back warmly on that period.

Memories of the older Mendosa's include the wooden floors, the smells of food inside the store, and the feeling that something from an earlier Mendocino disappeared as the business modernized. A memory from the 1990s recalls being able to use a back entrance that is no longer available.

Others described the present store with just as much affection — praising its large selection, helpful employees, specialty items, pet supplies, prepared foods and the simple pleasure of shopping there regularly.

One thing comes through clearly in both the old memories and the new ones: people become attached to Mendosa's. That has apparently been happening for more than a century.

Timeline

Late 1800s — Frank and Isabel Mendosa, immigrants from the Azores, settle in Mendocino.

Before 1909 — Frank Mendosa operates a restaurant and saloon on the east side of Lansing Street.

1909 — Mendocino votes to ban alcohol sales; Frank converts the business into a grocery and dry-goods store.

Early to mid 1900s — Bill, John, Joe and Gus Mendosa work in the family business for more than fifty years.

1963 — Bill Mendosa retires following a heart attack.

May 1985 — Tom Honer opens the first Harvest Market in Fort Bragg with a staff of 46.

2006 — Harvest Market adds Mendosa's, and the store becomes Harvest at Mendosa's.

Today — The store continues as Mendocino's full-service grocery and general store.

Sources & Original Research: This history combines current business information, historical documentation, community recollections and original research. Sources include the Kelley House Museum, particularly its history of William A. "Bill" Mendosa and the Mendosa family business; Harvest Market's official company history, documenting Harvest's 1985 founding and its expansion to include Mendosa's in 2006; Harvest at Mendosa's official store information; the original Buildings and Businesses in Mendocino post provided by Gee Bee; and community memories supplied by Eric Lyte, Jim Olson, Anna Roeth, Katherine Ritchey, Peggy Wing, Barbara Chedister Cowan, and Sue Harlan.