Plainfield Station

Plainfield Station on the morning of 8/5/2006

Location

23944 County Road 98, Plainfield, (Woodland postal designation)

(Road 98 & Road 29, northwest of Davis)

Hours

Opens at 10am

Closes anywhere from 11pm-2am, depending on business

Phone

(530)668-0207

(call ahead if you are heading out late in the evening)

Plainfield Station, sometimes described as "a rural version of Cheers," is a bar-and-grill joint that offers a pleasantly surreal experience for any college student and a nice local refuge for non-students. It is located in the middle of nowhere, shrouded by trees, a sort of oasis of life and activity. Besides the beer bar (no hard liquor is served), they serve reportedly amazing hamburgers and tacos. Plainfield's current owners, Pietro & Claire Fazzari, purchased the neighboring home along with Plainfield in 2002 and built out the roomy backyard with a stage and second beer bar. There have been attempts to establish it as the de-facto venue for the Davis area, and local bands have performed here — but it still remains more or less a locals bar on the edge of town. Because Plainfield Station serves food it is legally allowed to let people of all ages in, but 21 is still the drinking age, obviously.

Plainfield Station was originally established as an auto service station way back in 1934 for the long gone town of Plainfield [est. 1873]. According to a Davis Enterprise article, the station used to sell alcohol for patrons of the social hall across the road, then called Buckeye Road. The town post office went under in 1908, and when the social hall eventually closed its doors sixty years later, Plainfield simply continued to serve passers by.

Memorabilia covering the walls of Plainfield are the accumulation of many nights of drink. From bikers to skydivers, cyclists, pilots, and other locals and travellers, Plainfield keeps a bit of everybody who passes through. A small coin-op pool table and two real [not electronic] dart boards take up about a third of the main bar, PBR is always on tap, and the jukebox contains a proper selection of roadhouse music. If pool's not your game, belly up to the bar for a game of liar's dice with the bartend and the guy sitting next to you. Pietro and Claire have worked to attract more college students, with a wide range of music shows out back, more microbrews alongside Sierra Nevada and other popular Davis drink, and horror of horrors, vegetarian food! It is the venue for Operation Restore Maximum Freedom.

In planning stages: Kitchen expansion to include a pizza oven and a repainting of the mural, which is flaking.

Plainfield Station Mural on the morning of 8/6/2006 Plainfield Station Entrance on the morning of 8/6/2006 Plainfield Station Sign The menu on 2007-06-02

Comments:

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2006-10-31 20:23:54   The food does kick ass —StevenDaubert

2006-11-25 13:18:36   Fun, low-key bar. Never been there when there have been more than 5 other customers. Good place to just chill out. —AcMach

2007-03-01 22:47:49   I have been bartending here for over a month now...its pretty fun. More people from davis should roll out here from time to time. —JessicaElb

2007-03-12 16:32:49   Noticed a help wanted sign out front the other day, if anyone needs a job.... —RocksandDirt

2007-03-13 19:28:01   Has potential to be a great bar and I agree the food is good, but current owners seem tired of owning the place. I like the atmosphere, but stopped going due to owner's complaints about lack of time off and "too many people last night". —DaveReynolds

2007-03-26 10:18:50   Good food, low key place, good fun — especially when full of skydivers on a weekend night from the nearby dropzone! —MuffIn

2007-03-26 10:51:16   There's something about run down and decrepit businesses that make Davisites say "oooh la la". Now I'm no fan of sparkly clean chain bars like Pasta? and Bistro33, but you know, sometimes a dump really is just a dump. —JeffSpeckles

2007-07-16 22:17:06   Must say i am a fat dude with manboobs and i loved that place there are people like me there and women to couple big ol girls man o man i like it bigtime —dickjones

2007-08-03 12:56:58   good taco's cool out of the way place kinda makes you think of that movie the roadhouse —Brians

2007-10-15 00:03:19   spent quite a bit of time at plainfield, and to be honest the new owner is outwardly and unneccessarily rude to both customers and employees, so, i'd say the bad customer/employee/owner relations outweigh the good side to going there —francesca28

2008-01-10 14:26:16   Wednesday's they have $1 taco's and $7 pitchers of Bud or Bud Light. The taco's were excellent and everyone else I went with agreed too. Their burgers are also very good. Overall it's a great place to relax and kick back at. —ScottStanley

2008-04-21 20:46:14   Come to think of it, yes it is like Cheers. We do at Plainfield have a "Norm", affectionally known as "Murph", good for a joke or help with "Sekudo". Of course there is Kendra, a comely lass, if only I were many years younger. —AlMingus