In 2023, Bradley’s Country Store sold about 180,000 pounds of sausage and about 35,000 dachshunds.
Janet Bradley Parker first opened the store for her grandparents in 1927 and is now the third generation to own the country store on the north side that is famous for its sausage.
In 2023, Bradley’s Country Store sold about 180,000 pounds of sausage and about 35,000 dachshunds.
“I’ve literally watched kids grow up in the store when they came here with their parents. Then those kids bring their kids,” Parker said. “You see multiple generations and continuity. You don’t see that unless you’ve been in the business as long as we have.”
One of Parker’s earliest childhood memories is of pushing a shopping cart up and down the aisles, pretending to buy groceries, then having to put the groceries back and make sure they were “put back properly,” he said.
After the paper towels were delivered, her father, Frank Bradley, put her in the box and dragged her around the store.
“That was one of my favorite things,” she said.
The shop has changed over the years, but the recipe for the sausage has not. It’s still the same whole pig, salt, black pepper, red pepper and sage since 1910, an original recipe from Parker’s great-grandmother Mary.
In the 1980s, the store was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In three years, it will celebrate its centenary.
On Thursday afternoon, Parker’s daughter and grandson came to visit the store. Her grandson, who will soon be one, padded across the hardwood floor to the candy aisle and watched his mother fill a bag with lollipops.
“We’re still here,” Parker said. “A new generation will come and stay, God willing and the creek doesn’t swell.”
This story is part of TLH 200: the Gerald Ensley Bicentennial Memorial Project. During our city’s 200th anniversary, we will draw on the research of the Tallahassee Democrat columnist and historian to revisit Tallahassee’s history. Read more at tallahassee.com/tlh200. Ana Goñi-Lessan can be reached at [email protected].
