A quick hop off Highway 101 north of Healdsburg is a Western downtown, and at the T-intersection in the middle of Geyserville is its heart with an unusual name. It’s the North Bay, so winemakers outnumber cowboys, but they all hang out under the same taxidermy glare of a giant moose head at the Geyserville Gun Club.
In mostly liberal Sonoma County, a bar beholden to firearms has become an institution. The wood-clapboard exterior and exposed brick interior just celebrated its first decade in Geyserville, and the couple behind it keep expanding. This year, they opened their third business while hosting events to fasten the Gun Club as the Geyserville hub.
Owner Dino Bugica doesn’t blink when he’s asked the name. It’s only history. The Gun Club is in the same building as the Geyserville Odd Fellows, a still-active community organization — even though the basement is no longer used for target practice. Yes, below the Geyserville Gun Club was an actual gun club, evidenced by the bullet holes in the walls.
“The name is memorable and kitschy,” Bugica said. “And very few people have been offended by it.”…