Raley's heir Michael Teel is about to open the first of his Good Eats gourmet market/cafes.
But it will be in Arizona. Not Sacramento.
"This offers immediacy. We can get up and running," Teel says of the lease he and business partner Michael Ashker signed last week to take over a vacant 12,000-square-foot space in Scottsdale. They plan to have their store running by mid-January.
The partners initially planned to launch the first of their Good Eats markets in Sacramento. But there have been delays in the remodel of the former Andiamo restaurant site they leased earlier this year at 32nd Street and Folsom Boulevard. And their plans to take over the Corti Brothers store at 58th and Folsom were canceled.
That left them with a staff of executives and no places to run.
Then they heard about the Scottsdale site.
"It was a godsend," Ashker says of the Arizona location, a former My Dish Market that closed several months ago and was available at discounted lease rates.
Plans are to open it as the inaugural Good Eats, offering prepared takeout meals, pizza, bakery goods and select grocery items, as well as a bistro and wine bar, the partners say. Eventually, smaller, 1,200-square-foot sites will be opened throughout the Phoenix-Scottsdale area. The stores will concentrate primarily on takeout meals.
Meantime, the Sacramento plans continue. The Andiamo site is set to open in April or May, the partners say. Negotiations also are under way for a location in midtown.
Teel says there's no rush.
"We really want to prove the concept with one or two stores," he says. "We want to get profitable, get name recognition. Then we can get financing and expand."
Berry good deal
Berry queen Shari Fitzpatrick knows sales at her retail outlets are dropping. So what's she doing?
Opening another one – on Friday at The Fountains shopping center in Roseville.
"They gave me a deal I couldn't refuse," Shari says of her decision to open the 450-square-foot stand-alone store.
Fitzpatrick – who sells her products as "Shari's Berries" in the Sacramento area and under the "Berry Factory" name nationally – says same-store sales have dropped 5 percent to 7 percent in the past year.
But her online orders have more than made up for the drop, pushing overall revenues to about $2 million annually.
Recently, she's been looking to expand through partnerships. She's had talks, for example, about opening small Shari's kiosks in Nugget Markets.
She says she's also looking into selling berries, dipped apple "wedgies" and other goodies through refrigerated vending machines at Sac International Airport.
But opening more stand-alone Shari's stores?
"I was thumbs down on that," she says. "Another store? Never."
Until, that is, she got that sweet offer from the Fountains.
Not just for eating
Speaking of Shari, she's diversifying her business into fashion accessories.
Fitzpatrick's stores – and the Berry Factory Web site – now offer strawberry-colored earrings, toe rings and scarves.
She's also got a purse for sale. But it's black, with rhinestones. No berry theme at all.
"Not every woman can pull off … carrying a 'strawberry' purse," Fitzpatrick says.
We suspect she's one of the few that can.
Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.
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