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Charlie and Alex Larson had every reason to believe that the Garlic Shoppe would be their nest egg. Their large red barn, located at the junction of Highways 101 and 25, has been a familiar landmark for San Benito County commuters—and a successful business—since 1985.
That was until they were given notice on Jan. 15 that the state was seizing the land by eminent domain as part of the $100 million 101/25 interchange.
“We actually knew the freeway expansion was going to be happening since 1985,” Alex said. “Then every five or six years, they would come up with a plan and say, ‘You gotta get out right away.’ And then they would change plans again.”
Knowing that the move was inevitable, they acquired a 1926 mansion on the other side of 101 and invested over $750,000 to make it ADA-compliant.
“Then they changed the plans again,” Alex said. “They said they were going to leave the Garlic Shoppe property and take the other one instead. This has been going back and forth for years.”
Ultimately, the state decided to take both the Garlic Shoppe property and all the land up to 30 feet away from the mansion, cutting off access to it.
Fortunately, the Larsons had another place to go. In 1999, they purchased another business, Rapazzini’s Winery on Hwy 101, just 50 yards north of the Garlic Shoppe.
“We used to come over to help out for fun, working on the bottling line,” Alex said. “They decided they wanted to retire so my brother said, ‘Well, let’s buy them out.’”
Rapazzini’s was an active winery, but the building, which housed the tasting room, had been closed since the start of the pandemic. The Larsons moved the contents of the Garlic Shoppe there. However, the retail space in the new building is limited, and most of their inventory is now warehoused.
“Where we would have had 12 to 24 pieces of each item,” Alex said, “now, we may have only six on display. And we don’t have room for a lot of the gift items, like pottery and T-shirts. We have been able to maintain the integrity, but it is still only about 65% of our stock.”
Alex said the move is costing them a “vast” amount of money. “I don’t know if it is a number we should reveal,” he said. The state, though, has promised to help.
Stacey Hendler Ross, public information officer for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, told BenitoLink they will “compensate the Garlic Shoppe owners for all reasonable relocation expenses.”
Problem solved? Not quite.
According to Alex, the new freeway project includes a sound wall that, once installed in October, will effectively cut the Rapazzini location off from any visibility or access from Hwy 101, severely limiting its exposure to passersby.
“This time, they are not taking away our building,” Alex said. “Just our ingress and egress.”
According to Ross there will be access off of Hwy 25 to the Garlic Shoppe, but Alex is doubtful.
“There’s a dirt road behind us,” he said, “and they think our customers are going to go up a mile, come back two miles, go up this way, half a mile that way, a quarter mile and back over here, through dirt roads and potholes to get to us.”
Alex said the brothers have been looking at other locations, but none offer the kind of exposure he currently enjoys, or the affordability. Because only 5% of their business occurs online, the future is discouraging.
“Everything is paid off here,” Alex said. “If I go to pay rent at the places that I’ve been looking at, it is going to be $15,000 to 20,000 a month. And there aren’t that many great locations to move to anyway. This has pretty much destroyed us.”
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