A major blow for the new Bridgeport Marketplace:

The Bristol Farms market in Valencia’s Bridgeport Marketplace is set to close Feb. 25, a store official confirmed Wednesday.

The high-end grocer opened in November 2008 as the anchor tenant for the shopping center.

Questions about the closure of the store, which employs roughly 100 people, were referred to Bristol Farms’ corporate officials, who could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.

SIGNAL

I wanted to like Bristol Farms. They had a good selection of foods, tools and utilities. But they weren’t that different than say, Pavilions, and they were more expensive. Whole Foods is expensive too, but some people value its selection of organic and local products.

I wonder if the closure is a result of high prices in this bad economy, location, competition or some combination thereof?

At work, at home, and among friends and family, I’m noticing some excitement over the forthcoming Sprouts Farmers Market store. The grocer won’t open until August, but already the people of the SCV are cheering their arrival at the old Mervyn’s building on Magic Mountain Parkway.

What’s the big deal about Sprouts? Well, Sprouts isn’t just another lame grocer. They’re not high-end like Bristol Farms (which carries all the name brand foods at higher prices), they’re not solely going after the organic/locavore segment like Whole Foods either. No, instead, they’re shooting directly for the “funky budget grocer” segment that’s currently dominated by Trader Joe’s.

Anyway, I thought I’d steal some pictures of Sprouts from Flickr to sate your appetite until they open in August and to see how the store might differ from other grocers in town (click the photos to visit the owner’s Flickr picture):

Hmmm. Where have we seen chalkboard signs before? Also, notice the nice-sized produce section (other Flickr pictures show more produce)

They appear to sell products with their own branding, just like Trader Joe’s. And many of the shots show organic products.

Also, the pictures show that like Whole Foods, Sprouts allows you to buy things like coffee and other items in bulk. This is certainly cool; Trader Joe’s, as my friend Mike says, isn’t necessarily for people who like to cook, it’s for people who like prepackaged meals at a good price. But Sprouts may offer the best of both worlds.

There also appears to be a lunch/deli counter at Sprouts, which will add to the lunch time dining options available to us in the central valley. This is one of my favorite features of Whole Foods: buy lunch and get some shopping done at the same time. It appears we’ll be able to do the same thing at Sprouts.

Another shot of the produce section. This just puts Trader Joe’s to shame!

Some five months after Trader Joe’s moved to their new location near Best Buy at Bouquet & Newhall Ranch Road, I’m still hearing complaints about how difficult it is to get there. Some have told me that they no longer stop there after work (even if they live in Saugus), while others say they now visit just a few times per month whereas they used to go every week. There’s no doubt that TJ’s is enjoying big success at its new place, but people still find it hard to get to.

Sprouts’ central location will be a major asset for it, I think.  And it could be a major asset for the River Oaks shopping center, which has quite a few vacancies right now.

Thanks to Flickr user Lisa Bergeron and digitalnomad for the pics!

A child of the 80’s, I remember when frozen yogurt hit paydirt.  Soon, the local haunts were replaced with forgettables like Penguins, Frogen Yozurt, and Hogi Yogi.  It went on something of a hiatus (right around the time of the now-classic Seinfeld episode), then re-emerged with a red banner and a Golden Spoon.   Other franchises popped up with a self serve twist, and there are a few good options in our valley.

Amidst a sea of familiar storefronts in Valencia, there’s a new family-owned, SCV-only yogurt joint.  ”Swirly’s” in the Tesoro Village shopping center has become something of an addiction in the NickelDime household; the location, hospitality, self-serve setup, and flavor variety are a sweet combination.

You’ll see T-shirt clad owners Aliza and Joseph wiping down the counters or working the cash register most visits.  ”We fell in love with the area,” Aliza recalls after an initial visit, “and there aren’t yogurt places on every corner!”  I’m not sure about that last part, but it’s a thrill to see yogurt shops come full circle with something authentic and local.

Tip: Swirly’s has a ‘happy hour’ from 4-6pm, 20% off.

The Signal and DiningGuy.com will join together to create video profiles/advertisements for local restaurants the paper announced today:

The Signal has partnered with restaurant review siteDiningGuy.com to offer a local dining guide, which went live Wednesday.

DiningGuy.com specializes in four to five-minute video featurettes of local restaurants, showcasing their atmosphere, specialty dishes, chefs, owners and entertainment.

With this agreement, DiningGuy.com has become the official dining guide for The-Signal.com, has an audience of 100,000 unique visitors per month online and 100,000 readers in print.*

The Signature Selections page will feature pictures of specialty dishes and details of each restaurant, all headlined by DiningGuy.com and The-Signal.com.

Neat.

Obviously this is more ad than editorial focused, but that doesn’t mean the ‘featurettes’ will be useless. Right now if I’m hungry and stuck in the SCV, I have only one source I go to for reliable reviews and information: Yelp.

Yelp, of course, is the grand-daddy of all restaurant and business review sites, and local Yelpers are constantly providing well-written and in-depth reviews of new and tried-and-true restaurants in the SCV.

So how does Dining Guy fit in? Well it looks like it’s more than just a video service; they have more in-depth profiles of restaurants than say, SantaClaritaGuide’s restaurant section. I like the idea of reviewing this site before going to a new restaurant, seeing how the restaurant’s owners and chefs market themselves, and seeing some high quality video and pictures of the establishment.

And then…of course, I’ll go on Yelp and see what everyone else thinks of the place.

* Since when did the Signal get 100,000 readers in print by the way?

Maybe I’m biased since they were so near to my house, but I believe Town Grind Coffee Cafe was one of the cooler independent coffee houses in town.

Alas, they, like Bella Vista over in the TCD*, are gone:

If you’ve never been there, it’s easy to understand why. Town Grind always had very limited hours, closing at or before 5pm. Occasionally they had bands, poetry readings, and discussion groups- you could tell they were trying to attract the rarest of all demographics in Santa Clarita: the suburban bohemians.

Anyway, I’ll miss them.

Are there any independent coffee shops in town left? And no, sorry, Way Station & Saugus Cafe do not count. I know Mitch over at Newhall Coffee was thinking of reopening the Java ‘n Jazz of yesteryear at Lyons & Main Street, but I haven’t heard of any developments lately.

* TCD is the acronym my brother and his 20-something friends use  for Town Center Drive. I suppose that means TCD has arrived; it is now, finally, after 10 years, a true SCV destination.