Outdoor gathering at San Gregorio General Store with people seated at tables and on chairs, facing a white canopy tent where a live band is performing. The building has a beige stucco exterior with arched windows and decorative tiles. Potted ornamental grasses line the foreground. The scene is sunny with clear skies.

Still Here

The Oldest Stores on the Coastside

Half Moon Bay has always attracted people looking to stay awhile. Some of its businesses have taken that literally.

There’s a certain kind of place that doesn’t need to advertise itself as authentic. You can feel it the moment you walk in — the worn wooden floors, the particular smell of a room that has absorbed decades of everyday life. In a world that obsesses over what just opened, Half Moon Bay quietly holds onto something rarer: businesses that have been here long enough to become part of the place itself. What they share is something harder to manufacture than any brand identity. Time. And the loyalty that comes with it.

Here, in order of when they first opened, are the oldest stores in the Half Moon Bay area.

San Gregorio General Store — Since 1889

A few miles south of town, San Gregorio’s general store has been greeting travelers since 1889 — the oldest on the Coastside, by more than two decades. Inside: picnic supplies, books, clothing, gifts, and a bar known for its sangria and local wines. Live music on weekends feels less like programming and more like something that has simply always happened here (because it has).

Half Moon Bay Feed and Fuel — Since 1911

The oldest store in Half Moon Bay proper, Feed and Fuel has been on Main Street since 1911 — the largest and oldest feed and tack store in San Mateo County. Farmers, horse owners, and backyard chicken keepers come here for feed, seeds, and tools. The seasonal baby chicks stop everyone in their tracks. 

Cunha's Country Store — Since 1924

Founded by the Cunha family in 1924 and now under new family ownership, Cunha’s is as close to a true general store as Main Street gets. Dairy, eggs, fresh produce, deli sandwiches, ice cream — it’s the place locals stop when they actually need something. Over a century in, it feels less like a destination and more like a given.

Half Moon Bay Nursery — Since 1957

Open since 1957 and spanning over three acres, it’s one of the most expansive nurseries in the Bay Area — citrus, bamboo, succulents, rare perennials, and specialty varieties serious gardeners make specific trips to find. Set along San Mateo Road with farms on either side, it feels like a natural extension of the landscape it serves.

Cowboy Surf Shop — Since 1971

Founded in 1971 by Craig “Cowboy” MacArthur as Miramar Surf Boards — the area’s first surf shop — Cowboy has been part of the local surf community for over fifty years. Built for people who actually surf here. Board building, local knowledge, and a hands-on connection to the water have kept it relevant where the waves demand the real thing.

Coastside Books — Since 1972

One of the longest-running independent bookshops in San Mateo County, Coastside Books has anchored this stretch of Main Street since 1972. Fiction, biography, history, science, and a children’s section that has introduced several generations of young readers to the pleasures of an afternoon lost in a book. The staff recommend rather than just restock.

Repetto's Nursery & Florist — Since 1976

What started as a small flower stand in 1976 has grown, over three generations, into one of the Coastside’s most welcoming shops. Known for its orchids — including miniature potted varieties that have become a kind of signature — along with custom arrangements, plants, and seasonal gifts. Rooted in agriculture, shaped over time into something visitors seek out.

Tokenz — Since 1982

Originally rooted in San Francisco before settling in Half Moon Bay, Tokenz has spent over four decades building a following with an eclectic mix of gifts, craft supplies, crystals, and home accents. The crystal collection draws both casual browsers and dedicated collectors. It’s the kind of shop you want to hang out in, run by people who choose inventory with a point of view.

The Paper Crane — Since 1985

Since 1985, this family-owned shop has carried cards and stationery from over 100 independent designers alongside work from local artists. You go in for a birthday card and come out with three things you didn’t know you needed. Forty years in, it remains one of the more distinctive shops on Main Street.

P.Cottontail & Co. — Since 1985

A specialty children’s clothing store on Main Street since 1985, P.Cottontail carries clothing, accessories, and shoes for kids newborn to twelve, with a focus on quality over the generic. For parents who visited as children themselves, there’s something quietly meaningful about finding it still here — the kind of continuity that make Half Moon Bay special.

Goldworks — Since 1987

Founded by Jay and Patti Warshauer and now led by their son Josh — a GIA-accredited gemologist and Revere Academy-trained jeweler who took over in 2014 — Goldworks is a true family jewelry business. Custom design, diamond and gemstone sourcing, appraisals, vintage estate pieces: the range is broad, but the approach is personal. Four decades in, it’s still the Warshauer family behind the counter.

What These Places Have in Common

What holds these stores together is not nostalgia, although there is plenty of that. It’s the fact that each of them has continued to be genuinely useful or genuinely loved — often both — through economic downturns, changing tastes, and the slow churn of a retail landscape that has not been kind to small businesses. They are also, collectively, a portrait of what Half Moon Bay actually is: a working town with a surf culture and a farming heritage, a literary community and a flower-growing tradition, a place where people come for a weekend and end up wandering somewhere they didn’t expect. The oldest of these stores opened its doors when Grover Cleveland was in the White House. The newest opened the same year Halley’s Comet last passed by Earth. It won’t be back until 2061. These stores will probably still be here. Between them, they have seen the town grow, change, and in important ways, stay exactly the same. That’s worth more than a quick stop at the beach. Check out all of Half Moon Bay’s shops here.

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