Few centenarians get a second act, but Cloverdale’s favorite roadside burger and milkshake stop, Pick’s Roadside (formerly Pick’s Drive-In), is gearing up for its next 100 years.
First opened in 1923 as Reed and Bell’s Root Beer Stand, an offshoot of the A&W Root Beer franchise founded by Lewis Reed and H.C. Bell, the historic burger shack reopened Saturday, Jan. 10, after a complete makeover and menu reboot that nods to the past while embracing modern ingredients and tastes. Root beer, of course, remains a fixture, but is joined by Roederer sparkling wine and Wagyu beef burgers. Old Cloverdale meets Sonoma Wine Country.
“Pick’s has always been more than a restaurant,” said general manager Amber Lanier last June. “It’s a gathering spot, a piece of history and a place that has shaped the memories of so many in Cloverdale.” Based in the town of just 9,000 residents, the locality matters to residents who have an emotional stake in the former drive-in.
A project of this scale needs deep pockets and vision. Anidel Hospitality bought the century-old landmark last year and funded the revamp. The company, led by tech entrepreneur and Weebly co-founder Chris Fanini, focuses on reviving historic properties. The group previously relaunched the Sonoma Cheese Factory and Sonoma’s Best Modern Mercantile after acquiring them from embattled developer Ken Mattson. In 2024, they also reopened Tahoe’s oldest waterfront bar, Chambers Landing.
A historic legacy
Lanier, a fifth-generation Sonoma County resident, recalled that her grandmother used to visit the drive-in as a little girl — and she would still recognize much of it today. The iconic neon Pick’s sign from the 1940s remains, a glowing nod to the heyday of California drive-in restaurants, along with milkshakes, root beer floats and grilled burgers.
Among the last of its kind, Pick’s faced an uncertain future after it was put up for sale in 2024. The low-slung building needed repairs and a clearer vision, both now evident in the redesign. Soft moss green has replaced the teal paint. Crisp black-and-white subway tiles line the interior walls, menus glow from digital displays, and a modern glassed-in kitchen puts the action front and center as staff hustle to fill orders.
On opening day, lines formed, thinned and formed again as curious passersby, longtime fans and former regulars crowded the counter, checking out the new menu and reconnecting with a place many hadn’t visited in years. It’s clearly a different Pick’s now, but the old-school vibe is still very much intact.
Pick’s next chapter borrows from Napa’s Gott’s Roadside playbook, elevating classic drive-in fare to modern Wine Country expectations. That includes a concise wine list of value-priced heavy hitters, including Roederer Estate Brut, Trione Sauvignon Blanc, Red Car Rosé of Pinot Noir, Martin Ray Pinot Noir, and Valravn Zinfandel, all from Sonoma or Mendocino counties, priced from $12 to $15 per glass.
While it’s far too early to render any iron-clad verdicts on the food, signs are promising.
The food
Somewhere between a thin smashburger and a mouth-stretching 8-ounce burger, Pick’s three-pound Akaushi American Wagyu burgers are just about right. Cooked well done, they have a crisp outside and a juicy middle. While using such premium beef without a pink center seems curious, the flavor is unmistakable.
Buns are custom-made at Village Bakery in Santa Rosa, which developed pillowy Japanese milk rolls and pretzel buns for the Pick’s menu. They’re top-notch, but I wish they were a little bigger to better contain the ingredients that threaten escape with every bite. You won’t look refined or cool eating a Pick’s burger or fried chicken sandwich with blobs of red relish on your face. And hands. And hair, depending on how enthusiastic you are.
The baseline Roadside Burger ($13) is a one-third-pounder without bells or whistles. It is simple, clean and confident, with nothing to hide. A good starting place.
The Pick’s Burger ($16) goes a step further, with signature sweet red relish, pickled onions and cheddar, plus crisp shredded lettuce, good midwinter tomatoes and mayo. Someone in the kitchen clearly cares about produce and will not let offseason vegetables sabotage a solid burger. I recommend going all in on the Bacon & Blue Burger ($19), stacked with blue cheese crumbles, pickled onions and applewood-smoked bacon atop a juicy beef patty.
Fried chicken is a menu requirement at burger joints these days, and Pick’s got the message. On both the regular ($15) and spicy chicken sandwiches, the crispy, flattened breast refuses to be constrained by its small pretzel bun, oozing sauces and threatening to collapse with each bite. Grab a fistful of napkins and consider a bib. The Spicy Chicken sandwich ($16) is a heavyweight with a trio of sauces: hot honey, buffalo sauce and ranch, topped with mozzarella, pickled onions, lettuce and tomatoes. If I were going to lose anything, it would be the buffalo sauce.
A vegetarian friend raved about the Black Bean Burger ($16), a proper vegan bean burger, not an Impossible burger, topped with avocado. Crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, it’s retro hippie in the best way.
Also on the menu are Schwarz all-beef hot dogs, which come nearly naked or loaded. The Pick’s Dog ($11) is kid-friendly, with just relish and mayo on a toasted bun. The Works ($16) breaks with tradition, adding mozzarella cheese, bacon, pickled onion and red relish. The relish, by the way, is unique to Pick’s and is a combination of sweet relish, ketchup and a collection of seasonings that definitely include cinnamon.
Don’t miss the Straus soft-serve cones in vanilla or chocolate ($7), along with $9 milkshakes featuring the usual suspects (vanilla, chocolate, malted) plus strawberry, cookies and cream, and caramel toffee Heath Bar crunch. Fries ($4) are still a work in progress, but their sweet, salty and spicy seasoning is craveable and would be great as a bloody mary salt rim.
Off to a solid start, Pick’s is clearly back. Food writers sitting at the counter with a glass of sparkling wine, a root beer chaser, and a blue cheese-and-bacon burger may not be what Pick’s original owners envisioned. Still, it is a fine way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon in Cloverdale. While a few edges remain to be smoothed, it is clear the northern Sonoma County town is glad to have its red relish, grilled burgers and milkshakes back in the center of town, where they have been for a century.
117 S. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale.