Woman looking for partners to buy the Alpine Inn

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

A Portola Valley woman is on a mission to buy the beloved beer garden and community gathering space at the Alpine Inn, also known as Rossotti’s.

But Lucy Neely is looking for the community’s help in her purchase of the business that dates back to the 1850s. Neely has started the Portola Valley Community Roadhouse LLC to raise funds to purchase the Inn, which is located at the corner of Alpine and Arastradero roads.

The beer garden is up for sale through a broker who is representing the Alexander family, said Neely, who has met with that person. The family decided to put the Alpine Inn up for sale after the bar’s matriarch, Molly Alexander, died in June at age 93.

Neely began gathering information on how to purchase the business in February and teamed up with others who were thinking about buying it.

Neely declined to say how much she’s trying to raise, saying there are other people who want to buy the Inn, and “the game is on.”

For the next two weeks Neely will be working to recruit people to invest in the LLC. She will be holding meetings for those interested in investing at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday (May 22) and 6 p.m. Wednesday (May 23) at Portola Valley Library’s community meeting room
at 765 Portola Road. People can also email her at [email protected].

So far, people from Portola Valley, Woodside, Stanford and Redwood City have invested, Neely said.

“So many people have an emotional relationship with this place, so that’s why I think this solution makes sense,” she said.

Neely says if her bid to buy the business is accepted, the owners would elect a board of directors who would run the business in collaboration with a professional general management team.

Neely is a Portola Valley native and has been going to Rossotti’s, or “Zott’s,” as long as she can remember. She works as a manager for her family’s business, the Spring Ridge Vineyard in Portola Valley.