With a goal of being rooted in community, Roadside22 in Clayton hopes to provide not only good beer and wine to its patrons, but rather a place for people to come together.
With a giant hand painted American flag as the backdrop, fresh taps and a sweet looking modern, yet rustic bar setup, Roadside22 will host a soft opening on Saturday before its official grand opening on Wednesday, Oct 18 at 4:00 pm. Located at 5439 Clayton Road, Ste E-F in Clayton, it will feature 12 taps for beer, wine and snacks such as charcuterie boxes and other goodies.
Owner Nichole Simpson, who has a background in wedding and event planning over the past 13-years, had wanted to open her own event space but after the pandemic and seeing how it impacted her business, she decided to go for it and include her other dream of incorporating a bar.
“This idea was born over my years of wanting to have my own event space that I could run because I do weddings, special events and birthday parties. I wanted to have a venue that people could rent for birthdays and anniversaries, and it morphed into a bar,” explained Simpson. “It was designed in a way for people to come here and hang out. I live here, it’s my community and I wanted to have a place for people to come together,”
She said it was important that it be a gathering spot for everyone as her kids go to school in the area and a lot of people just need somewhere to hang out at.
The name Roadside22 was because Simpson started the concept in 2022 and over the past year she has worked with Clayton, Concord and the County to get the beer and wine bar open–including an outdoor patio and become dog friendly.
With 12-taps for beer, Simpson said she will focus on local and smaller breweries along with bringing in wine from boutique wineries that are not well known. The goal is to help other small businesses have a space for others to try their beer and wine–hopefully grow their businesses as well.
“The focus is on local or small,” stated Simpson. “We have some beers coming in from Richmond, Livermore and other locations. Along with smaller wineries.”
The wine was chosen by a group of friends where eight of them got together trying different wines over the past year. In total, she believes it was near 100 different bottles of wine were opened as they dove into experimenting what wines to bring to Roadside22. In the processes, she says some of her favorites were the Lake Sonoma Red Wines, Kosich Family Wines.
Some of the beer will include Morgan Territory, Almanac and Drakes, plus others.
As for food, Roadside22 will have charcuterie box, humus, veggie box, breads and dips, pub mixes, and chips with salsa/guacamole—all of these will be pre-made and ready to grab while visiting. Some nights, they will partner with a local pizza place for specials. She also plans to partner with other restaurants to bring the food in and use their spot to drink. They also plan on Sunday brunch—including a breakfast pizza.
One thing Simpson wants to include is on Sundays, use part of the facility as a small business market to help other local people out so people can come for not only a drink, but look at fresh flowers, candles or other items from small makers.
“I live here, I am part of the community and I want to be a place for you everyone to come together,” said Simpson. “I am old fashion, I want to be part of building community.”
Roadside22
5439 Clayton Road, Suite E-F, Clayton, California 94517
(925) 683-3937
Hours
- Wed – 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm
- Thurs – 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm
- Fri – 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm
- Sat – 12:00 pm to 10:00 pm
- Sun. – 8:00 am to 2:00 pm
Website: www.roadside22.com
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