20 Apr 2011
11:55 am

STOP! It's Granzella's in Williams, CA!

I don't know many who drive past Williams, CA without a stop at Granzella's Restaurant.

Granzella's is located in the Northern California Sacramento Valley (where Hwy 20 meets Interstate 5, you could say). It's hard to drive up and down I-5 without stopping in for coffee, lunch or dinner. Or a beer and to watch a game in the sports bar. There's a great gift store, too, don't forget!

A few years ago the restaurant burned down. Yikes! We couldn't help but think about all the wild game (dead, not alive) they had on display in the bar area and that it would go up in smoke. Someone was quick thinking and got most or all of it out. Phew! While it was a difficult part of their history, it has added a certain intrigue to the place to see how true commitment works to the benefit of all.

Take a look at the link for Granzella's and below are some photos I took on my trip back from Sacramento yesterday after dropping my son at the airport. (SMF) What an amazing reconstruction. It's reminiscent of what was there but even better! Seeing is believing!

Oh, and all the food you can lay your eyes on is mouth-watering-good-stuff! I got a smoked turkey sandwich to go and had a quick look around at their displays of hot sauce and wines and olives and...the list does go on! I bought a loaf of their Foccacia bread to bring home which has become a sort of ritual for me when in Williams. It was hard to pass up the gelato but I'll confess to managing that. Be strong, I told myself!

While the food beckons you to stop, so do the people you run into at Granzella's! Almost every time we stop, we run into someone we haven't seen in a long time OR someone we just saw at home in Redding. This is a good spot to stop since it is centrally located right off I-5. We like that the restaurant works hard (since 1967) to keep their clientele happy. Locals and out of towners alike love the place. If you have any Granzella stories, I hope you'll share right here.

I've a passion for "faces and places." I am looking forward to highlighting many going forward - right here. If you know of someone or someplace really interesting, let me know. Perhaps I could shine a light there! ~ReloMary

3 months ago Stephanie Steele responded:

This place had good reviews so we wanted to try it. Today we had a chance to finally visit. The store was clean and attractive with lots of enticing options. We decided to eat at the cafe before shopping and that is where the problem started. We ordered an Angus cheeseburger and a hot turkey dinner. The hamburger was acceptable but the beef patty overcooked for my tastes. Adding the included tomatoes, pickles, and lettuce made it sufficiently palatable. The turkey dinner was another thing altogether. The dinner was requested as a half order with no gravy due to gluten issues. This facility had no gluten free menu and the waitress did not seem educated or sensitive to this issue. The meal was supposed to come with vegetables. What we received was several slices of dried out turkey that appeared to be turkey loaf. It was so dry it was splitting and was unappetizing and inedible. The mashed potatoes were unimpressive and the vegetables were over cooked and included sliced nuts which made them inedible as the diner also has nut allergies. There was a small dish that contained about one tablespoon of cranberry sauce which did appear appetizing. The waitress never checked back to see if the meal was acceptable and as we were in a hurry decided to report it to the cashier as we paid. The cranberry sauce was eaten and a few bites of the dried out turkey and the rest left behind. We went to the cashier who asked us how the meal was and I told her what our experience had been. She asked if we had told our server and I told her that she had never checked back with us. She went on to charge us full price for the meal which made that tablespoon of cranberry sauce and one ounce of turkey pretty expensive at $14.99. No offer was made to adjust the bill or do anything else to make it right. We paid and left. We intended to shop the store and had spotted a number of items we were going to purchase but after the experience at the cafe we decided that we had spent enough time and money here. Our advice is to pass this by and eat elsewhere. It's just not worth the time to stop.