What makes this Boonville market a foodie’s paradise

If you like building snacks or meals around hard-to-find wines, high-end meats and cheeses, you likely will do a happy dance at Disco Ranch.

The modest Boonville wine bar and specialty market carries all the trappings of a gourmet picnic, including charcuterie, fromage, crackers and more. Also available are obscure local wines, beloved European wines and aromatized wines that go great in cocktails. Every now and then, the shop even hosts pop-ups where visiting chefs will whip up full meals on the patio or for take away.

But the shop sells more than just treats you can eat — it trades in connections, too. Owner Wendy Lamer chats up customers as they browse, and cares so deeply about the products in her inventory that she’s always ready with knowledgeable advice about what to buy, what to pair it with and why.

The shop has become a favorite of travelers and locals alike.

“You cannot be here for five minutes without learning something interesting, eating something good or drinking something yummy,” Lamer, who originally hails from Georgia, said. “That’s the whole idea.”

Rare offerings find fans

Lamer, 58, has been selling wine and high-end goods for the better part of 40 years. She spent most of that time in the Southwest. Then she came to Boonville in 2019, fell in love with the unique blend of sophistication and small-town charm and opened Disco Ranch that May.

Technically, this wine shop is her second. Her first, named Happy Herman’s, opened in 1982 in the suburbs of Atlanta. That first shop only sold wine; an obscure Georgia law at the time prohibited the sale of food and wine together. Lamer swore then that someday she’d open a shop with both.

Lamer said building the wine part of her business was easy.

The wine selection is anchored by local Mendocino wineries such as Fathers & Daughters, Intent Wines, Lussier, Quigley Family Wines and Black Kite. This includes sparkling wines and classics from France, Spain and Italy. Lamer can’t carry liquor, so she has blown out her selection of aromatized wines. She is one of the only shops in all of Mendocino County to offer selections such as Bonal, Cappelletti and Cocchi Rosa. Sometimes, if it’s slow, she’ll even give tastings.

The food part of Disco Ranch took a little more time to create.

The concept was simple — to build a shop around the notion of a pantry. This meant that in addition to stocking wines, Lamer needed to sell basics like oil, cheese, cured meats and other items of that sort.

“The kind of stuff that you’d have if you were camping or if you’re just in a hurry,” she said. “Delicious, affordable, high-quality food, but food that doesn’t necessarily take forever to prepare and enjoy. That’s what I’m after.”

Today some of her best sellers include tins of sardines, scallops, cockles and octopus, as well as cheese-and-charcuterie boards with olives, crackers and nuts. She also offers a limited menu of prepared foods like antipasto salads and sliders on Hawaiian rolls. The smoked duck breast sliders are a fan favorite. Customers also line up for the ones with pulled chicken pesto.

If you’re wondering about the shop’s name, it’s a throwback to parties Lamer used to cater and host on a ranch where she lived near Atlanta. Patrons had so much fun eating, drinking and dancing that they called her place Disco Ranch. One of her regulars even bought her a disco ball. The name stuck.

Pivoting during the pandemic

That same original disco ball hangs in the shop today. Lamer said it serves as a constant reminder of where she came from and why she got into the hospitality business in the first place.

She’s needed the reminder in these last two years.

Mere months after Lamer got Disco Ranch up and running, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Like many small business owners, she was fearful of the future.

Instead of panicking, she pivoted the business. She launched an e-commerce website and set up a delivery service. She cleared out tables that were inside the shop and added more inventory of delicious wines for $15 or less.

She also leaned on new friends to spread the word that her store was open for business.

As Mendocino County has emerged from COVID-19 shutdowns, Lamer has been able to move closer toward the model she originally envisioned. She still isn’t doing as many pop-ups as she’d like, and she still isn’t comfortable welcoming guests to dine indoors, but the shop has established an inviting rhythm that inspires guests to come and browse.

Case in point: Ashley Holland.

The Santa Rosa-based winemaker owns Read Holland and said when she’s driving through Boonville, she always makes a point to stop at Disco Ranch and stock up on supplies for her kitchen at home. Two of the latest Read Holland wines were made with fruit from Boonville and Philo, so the winemaker spent much of harvest traveling Highway 128.

“(Lamer) makes putting together a cheese and charcuterie board easy,” Holland said. “Anderson Valley has needed more local outlets and she found the break in the clouds of what was needed. She continues to overdeliver in her wine selection, sundries, food and experiences.”

Customers will find some of Read Holland wines on the Disco Ranch racks.

Laurel Livezey, sales and marketing associate at Husch Vineyards in the Anderson Valley, agrees with Holland.

Livezey goes out of her way to patronize Disco Ranch because Lamer carries products one can’t find easily elsewhere. For instance, Livezey fell in love with Champalou Vouvray and Barone Pizzini Franciacorta working in New York a few years ago, and was delighted to find them at Lamer’s store.

“Wendy has a knack for choosing amazing, good-value wines from across the world,” she said. “And when you’re in a wine region, it’s always nice to have the global wines to compare your region’s to.”

Don’t mess with success

The future at Disco Ranch looks a lot like the present.

It’s not that Lamer doesn’t have big plans — she does. She also recognizes that we’re still in a global pandemic, and after scuffling to survive for the better part of the last two years, she doesn’t exactly want to mix up the strategies that have worked.

This means the shop will probably look pretty much the same through the winter, maybe with a few additional visiting-chef pop-ups and take-away meals on the schedule.

Lamer said she hopes she can get the patio rolling again by spring and begin to offer more outdoor dining options there. This means guests will likely be able to stop at Disco Ranch, order meals or cheese and charcuterie boards and linger on the patio out front. Eventually, she’d like to build an outdoor kitchen to service these guests.

“Expanding the culinary program is the next step around here,” she said. “Good things take time.”