Winning Store Is Laid-Back Mom-and-Pop Place

Things were slow at Liquor, Tobacco & Gifts on Sunday afternoon, after all the excitement on Saturday.

The tiny store tucked into quiet crook the winding Westmoor Village Shopping Center in Sunnyvale was one of five in the Bay Area who bought MEGA Millions lottery tickets and won nearly $230,000 each by matching five of six numbers in Friday night's record-setting $640 million draw, according to state lottery officials.

"We got a call from the winner Saturday," said Nick Marcelini, a sales clerk, said adding that the owner were working when the call came in. "And then the TV cameras came in, too."

Marcelini said he and sales clerk Rafael Cardoza, were extremely busy Friday night selling tickets to the excited crowd that began steadily building. "We probably sold it to him," Cardoza said. "The line was going out the door" of the small storefront that sells premium cigars, wines and lottery tickets.

The store, because it carries premium Cuban-style cigars and fine ports, often draws from beyond the Sunnyvale-Los Altos-Cupertino clientele that are its closest customers, Marcelini said. The store is family-owned, he added and the owners, Hany Salim and Marcelle Dabbas are laid-back and friendly.

Besides the ticket sold at the store at the corner of South Mary Avenue and Fremont Avenue, four other tickets, worth $227,955 were sold at a San Jose 7-Eleven on Blossom Hill Road, Fremont's Fast & Easy Mart on Ardenwood Boulevard, Al's Food & Liquor on Medway Road in San Rafael, and San Francisco's Fox Liquors on Larkin Street, California Lottery officials said. There were 24 other winning tickets bought in California.