Andy Griffith may be gone, but the spirit of a bygone era lives on at Rambo’s Country Store in Califon. It is, no doubt, an odd stop for a group that is 2/3 vegetarian, as its main claim to popularity is as a meat counter. However, even the more herbivorean of us enjoyed a trip to a different time at this unusual find.  Touted as “not a convenience store,” the store showcases meats, deli, homemade dinner specialties (chicken pot pies are a mainstay and the store says they sell 60 per week!), and grocery items in a old-fashioned general store setting.

The store was built as one of the town’s three original general stores, by Abraham Philhower in 1888, and it has been in continuous operation ever since.  It was sold to the Apgar family, who owned it for almost 50 years, and then taken over by the Rambo family who ran it for another 50 years (the butcher shop section was added during this time by Leonard Rambo, Jr.).

The store is now owned by Donald Freibergs, who was born and raised in Califon, and worked stocking Rambo’s vegetables shelves before and after school when he was only 10 years old.  He and his wife, Marie, bought the shop in 1998 and work together there as a family with their children Margaret and Andrew. The pot-bellied stove, 1911 hand-crank cash register, counters and wooden floors are all original. Leonard Rambo, the former owner, still comes in twice a week to help out, stuffing sausages and helping out with the meat deliveries.

We partook in a sandwich, chips and some diet sodas (resisting the temptation for an ice cream cone), and sweated old-fashioned summer style on the store’s rustic porch. Other customers (including someone also with a dog named Bentley) were going in and out as we sat.  It was good to see an old mom-and-pop shop thriving in the middle of our usually modern state.