Volcano Country Store

The Oldest Store in California

Volcano Country Store — now known as Sizemore Country Store — has operated continuously since the 1850s, making it California’s oldest continuously operated store and restaurant. The original fireproof brick building was established by Abraham Klauber and Moses Mandelbaum, two town pioneers who built the structure with walls entirely shelved to serve the needs of Gold Rush miners. Heavy metal doors secured the merchandise, and stables behind the store housed the mules that hauled freight between Sacramento and Stockton. The town of Volcano itself was once one of the most important settlements in the southern mines, and this store has outlasted nearly all of its contemporaries.

New Ownership, Same Spirit

In late 2020, longtime owner Debbie Dunn sold the store to Tommy Sizemore of Oakley, a construction business owner who had long kept a cabin in Volcano and knew the place well. Sizemore renamed it the Sizemore Country Store and put considerable work into the building — new shelving and inventory, a storage area converted into a dining room complete with a rock fireplace and a 52-inch TV, and a new welcome sign out on Highway 88. General manager Amy Stuart helps keep the day-to-day operation running smoothly. Despite the changes, the store’s essential character endures: a gathering place where locals and visitors sit side by side, just as they have for more than 170 years.

Food, Drink, and Local Goods

The restaurant side turns out burgers, sandwiches, malts, and milkshakes that keep regulars coming back. The store is a proud stop on the Amador Burger Route, and for good reason — their double cheeseburger with all the fixings is the kind of no-frills, perfectly executed classic that draws people off Highway 88 and into the tiny town of Volcano. A wine bar pours Amador County wines, and Amador Brewing Company beer flows from the taps. Pastries arrive fresh from neighboring Kneading Dough Bakery, and the kitchen turns out fresh soup and chili daily. Beyond the food, the shelves carry handmade soaps, branded t-shirts and sweatshirts, and other locally produced items. An expanded garden patio offers outdoor dining, and during summer months BBQs fire up out front, with lunch served daily from 11:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

A Living Piece of Gold Country

What makes the Volcano Country Store special is not just its age but its persistence. While hundreds of Gold Rush-era businesses across the Mother Lode have long since shuttered, this place kept its doors open through booms and busts, fires and floods, and the slow quiet that settled over Volcano after the gold played out. The sturdy brick building itself is as much a part of the experience as anything on the menu — step inside and you are standing in one of the oldest commercial structures in the state, a place that has been feeding and supplying this community since the days when Volcano’s population rivaled Sacramento’s.