Dust Bowl Brewing
290 Figueroa St., Monterey, (831) 641‑7002, dustbowlbrewing.com
It was on May 8, 1948 when Ed Ricketts – Steinbeck’s best friend – died while driving across the train tracks at Drake Avenue in Monterey after a Del Monte Express passenger train smashed into his vehicle. He was only 50. That rail line, which started service in 1889, took its last ride in 1971, and in the 1980s, the City of Monterey converted the tracks into the Rec Trail, a regional treasure. The former depot of the Monterey stop now houses a Dust Bowl Brewing taproom, and its neon sign shines out toward Del Monte Avenue, announcing its presence to the passersby and visitors as a gathering place for locals and tourists alike in a spot that holds a place in Monterey history. Beyond that, Steinbeck’s most celebrated novel, Grapes of Wrath, followed Okies from the Dust Bowl to California, where they tried to make a new life. Dust Bowl Brewing followed them.