How Alpine Inn In California Served As The Birthplace Of The Internet

Kids born in 1980 experienced one form of childhood: Playing soccer outdoors, listening to the same album on repeat with their Walkman, and watching copious amounts of Saturday morning cartoons. Of course, their lives weren't entirely free of screens — and their teen years almost certainly found them creating MySpace profiles and logging on to AOL. But kids born only 30 years later came into a much different world, one where mobile computers can be carried around in anyone's pocket and Walkmans are merely a relic of the past repopularized by "Guardians of the Galaxy." Now, as of 2024, almost 67% of the world's population is counted among internet users. And while the internet feels so ubiquitous, with the idea of not being able to Google something near-incomprehensible, looking back on the humble origins of the World Wide Web can help us to remember how short the Internet Age has been relative to human history. 

The birthplace of the internet has traditionally been credited as Room 3420 at Boelter Hall on the University of California, Los Angeles campus on October 29, 1969. On that day more than 50 years ago, the first ever message on the then-named ARPANET was sent to the Stanford Research Institute — "LO," the only two letters of the intended message "LOGIN," got through before the system crashed. However, there's another place that's been heralded as the birthplace of this incredibly transformative technological breakthrough: The much less academically prestigious, but far more culinarily prestigious, Alpine Inn Beer Garden.

Telecommunication researchers from the Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International, were parked in the backyard of the historic establishment when they sent an internet message to a server in Boston in 1976 using their van's radio and a computer they brought with them. This is thought to be the first instance of successful internet communication between multiple different kinds of networks.

Portola Valley's Alpine Inn, otherwise known as Rossotti's or "Zott's," was established in 1852 and is thought to be the second oldest continually operating tavern in California, although it has undergone numerous renovations to bring it into the 21st century. There's regularly rows of motorcycles outside, as well as patrons arriving on horseback. Zott's had stories to tell long before the internet was a thought in anyone's mind, from being an unofficial place to access alcohol during Prohibition to all the regular robbery and bar-fight drama expected of any reputable tavern. In 1976, they added to their treasure trove of tales when scientists chose the location for their transmission due to its close proximity to the SRI offices and to a hilltop repeater station, as well as its relatively rural nature.

According to then-SRI researcher Don Nielson's recounting, the transmission, which was actually a rather long email-like report, bounced from a radio inside the van, to the hilltop repeater station, to the computer they set up on a picnic table outside, to the SRI offices in Menlo Park, and finally to Boston. The novelty in it was that the transmission joined different kinds of networks together to convey its message, which is the true meaning of the word "inter-net" in the first place. Today, there's a plaque at Zott's commemorating the events of that day as "the beginning of the Internet Age."

If you stop by the beer garden, though, don't just settle for seeing the plaque — it's worth a visit for any beer lover. Plus, Alpine Inn's menu features some of the best All-American food around, from cheesy, buttery burgers to burrata and pomegranate avocado toast — a food made popular by the internet. Message a friend online while you enjoy your wonderfully delicious food and admire how communication was revolutionized in that very spot.