Our story · Established 1974
Part of Second Street’s story.
The only liquor store in downtown Lewes is also one of its longtime neighborhood fixtures. Carol Garner and her husband opened R&L in 1974, right here on Second Street.
A street of local shops
When downtown was the weekly stop.
R&L’s history belongs to a working shopping street: a place to pick up what you needed and see people you knew.
In a Delaware Beach Life interview, Carol recalled a downtown with grocery stores, a hardware store, a shoe shop, and a five-and-dime. Friday paydays brought people into town to do their weekly shopping.
Her connection to Second Street stretched beyond R&L. Her father, Lou Ianire, operated restaurants nearby from 1959 to 1980.
That history helps explain what we love about a neighborhood shop: a familiar doorway, a conversation at the counter, and a reason to come back.
The building at 207
A storefront with an earlier chapter.
The city’s historic survey dates the building to about 1885 and identifies a bakery here on an 1891 map. R&L’s own chapter began in 1974.
A shop with range
The tradition is local. The selection is global.
Familiar American labels, wine from Europe, Delaware craft beer and everyday essentials—all under the burgundy sign.
