About Brookside

Though not always a restaurant, the Brookside dining room has been dedicated to Californian's enjoyment of eating and drinking for almost a hundred years.

Situated along California's first railroad, the building housing the Brookside Restaurant was originally constructed by Sacramento's Silva family as a guest house for the American River Winery in 1911. POrtuguese immigrants from the Azores Islands, the Silva's established a sixty-three acre holding in what was then the township of Mills in the early 1900s. After the death of their father in 1910, brothers Manuel Jr and John Silva used their knowledge of viticulture gained from working in local wineries to start their own commercial operation. Renamed the Silva Brothers Winery after a 1919 fire burned the original buildings, the business continued successfully til 1930 when federal agents forced its closure for violating laws of Prohibition.

Since the early days of its founding, the winery underwent several transformations as new ownership came and went. The last incarnation of the Old Silva venture was the Brookside Winery, from which the current restaurant takes its name.

Just as the winery before it, Brookside Restaurant draws upon the deep rooted history of its foundations to maintain a connection with its community past and present. Built upon California's past, Brookside looks to enrich its future.