New In Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove is sporting some new stores along its main streets.  From one end of town to the other, along Lighthouse Avenue and up and down crossing streets, entrepreneurs are giving it a go, filling up once-empty storefronts and feeling optimistic.  

There is a fine new restaurant that's open from 4 PM to closing at the corner of Fountain and Lighthouse, occupying a corner location in the big Holman's building.  It's a French country-style place called Le Normandie whose sure hit is coq au vin, according to many.  The onion soup will send the chill right out of your bones.  This is not a place to find experimental high-priced or highfalutin Cal-Euro food. Instead long-loved classic French favorites are cooked to a delicious turn on a nightly basis.  During our currently cool and breezy weather conditions, you feel well-fortified after a meal, content, satisfied.  It opened very quietly a few months ago and is doing well by all accounts.  The owner will greet you with a smile and lovely hospitality when you go.

Further along Lighthouse Avenue, heading west toward the post office, you will notice a new venture called Carried Away that has only been open a week.  They feature ladies handbags, accessories and small items for the home.  The proprietress also owns, with her husband, Miss Trawick's Garden Shop, a popular garden and home gift shop found around and below the Red House Cafe.  Both shops are fun to browse around and chat with the owner.  Very friendly and both very pretty shops.  Guests who stay down at the Centrella Inn or at the Gosby House Inn - two popular B&Bs in town - enjoy a very short and easy stroll to find gift shops, book stores, cafes and beauty boutiques nearby.

On Forest Avenue, just down from Grove Market is a new baby supply boutique shop called Sprout Baby Boutique, filled with unusual and unique clothing and small items for people newly arrived on earth.  The shop is very small, but the owner carries a full array of hard-to-find special shoes for babies and toddlers as well as things you may only otherwise find at boutique websites online.

Forest Avenue is now lined from top to bottom with all sorts of browseable small shops, most oriented to families and locals who style themselves non-Target, small-town locals.

Pacific Grove, like the entire Monterey Peninsula is anticipating a vigorous influx of visitors who will be here for the US Open Golf Championship in June.  Trees along Lighthouse are to be lit with thousands of sparkling lights in the evening.  US flags will flutter from the lamp posts and merchants will be fully stocked.

Carmel will be impacted during the tournament with people who love to poke and wander around.  They will be rewarded with fine restaurants, cafes and enough art galleries to satisfy the most energetic and determined art collectors; there are over a hundred galleries.  However, the prices are high in Carmel and parking is at a premium.  

The new stores on Lighthouse are good signs of economic energy, and every store owner is ready to welcome you.  We may have cold air here in PG, but we have warm hearts.

A Quickie

Only seven minutes to write today.  Off to work soon. 

Storm hasn't hit yet, but it's lumbering in.  You can feel shifts in temperature from balmy to cool and back again.  This is the west's version of the famous Perfect Storm that hit the northeastern seaboard a couple of decades ago - three major systems that all came together with deadly results - but our version has two.  The warm southern Pacific system is more moisture laden and the more northern, Alaska-originated front is colder and has faster-moving air. 

At this moment, the air is graying with darker and more heavy clouds every hour, but the air is still and folks are out bustling about with their usual business. 

Motivated to get out of our usual humdrum Saturday morning, we rummaged a few things to carry along, and indulged in a few treats from Pavel's Bakerei on Forest Avenue downtown.  Beignet, cinnamon brioche and blueberry scone - all immense, tender and warm from the ovens.  A few paces across the street to Grove Market to buy an organic Fuji apple and a Bosc pear and we were ready for a walk at Carmel River State Beach, which is my favorite beach in the world, hands down.  That oughta get us through bad weather now.  Hearts and stomachs full, eye-popping scenery in a 360-degree panorama, the fragrance of wild alyssum and booming surf.  Staggeringly good morning. Pictures to be posted when I have more time.  Gotta run.

Monday is Market Day

For the first time in a few weeks, months probably, I went to the Pacific Grove Farmers Market. It materializes every Monday afternoon, generally after 3 PM. Officially it's 4-8 PM right downtown on Lighthouse Avenue.

The market is just completing its first year of business, and it has been a struggle. Basically Pacific Grove is a destination town, shouldered aside by Monterey and Pebble Beach, over the hill from Carmel. So, you get here because you intend to get here, not because you made a wrong turn off the freeway. Shoppers who want to save a few dollars get in their cars and drive 20 miles to Marina round trip or even over to Salinas to get to the Wal-Mart or Pennies, but they miss out on what's on offer here in our foggy little corner of the universe.

The market is about two blocks long, and vendors are from Monterey and Sen Benito Counties as well as a few determined souls from as far away as Fresno. Produce is all organic and, of course, just picked, plucked or pulled that day.

Starting my walk at Grove Market (voted best neighborhood market in Monterey County for the zillionth time this year), I picked up a few staples and a market bag to flaunt my allegiance to the store. Charlie Herrera has the magic touch and runs a fine business there. I am happy to say I am ferociously loyal to the place - mostly because he sells the best darned bacon you can ever hope to eat. Try it - you'll see what I mean. I am equally happy to say that my very long-time friend Leslie is one of the best grocery clerks in all of creation; we always have a little catching up to do when I visit the store.

I trotted on down to the market then and feasted my eyes on the tubs of gerbera daisies, spring flowers, and roses, but I was really more interested in finding some seasonal fruit and greens for the table. Strawberries, raspberries, some very early apricots and cherries glowed in the mid-afternoon light. "Sample? Sample?" A vendor held out plump, red strawberry temptation-on-a-plate. I found my best deal at three brimming basketsful for $5. Another farmer was just filling up bins with late citrus including Meyer lemons. "I just picked them for you," he said smiling, and I fell for it. I chose three weighty beauties. Just because I asked, he gave me tips on pruning my own little tree, warning about suckers which steal the moisture from the rest of the plant.

The wind was rather kind and meek, but it was cold - maybe 53 or so. It's June now, and everyone is still wearing fleece, scarves and even gloves though the sun shines in nearby towns. I saw a few birds wearing sweaters, I think. At least they were flying right-side up.

The mushroom farmer's portabellas, crimini and white mushrooms were dewy and tender with freshness. I bought a pound. Next, glossy zucchini with the blossoms attached and raspberries. A small boy walked by eating some of the berries like candy, his mom herding him away from the tubs of water holding flowers.

At the last strawberry stand, a woman strolled very slowly by and sighed, "Oh, those berries smell so fragrant!" She inhaled and closed her eyes, rhapsodising about the aroma. I thought she might begin a little pirouette and I gave her a bit of elbow room.

I met a new vendor, newly here from Michigan. She and her husband had wandered west a couple of years ago and decided PG should be their home and came to live. Being a good wholesome mom from Michigan with a three-year-old girl to raise, she decided to bake cupcakes for a living. Her husband bought her some fancy carriers ("I loved him that day!"), and her fate was sealed. Now she calls herself Mrs. Delish's and offers tender and light treats at the market now and again. $3 a pop and you get about four mouthfuls of homemade goodness.