My eyes play ping pong from one product to the next, with no shortage of things to ogle. Stuff and more stuff. Most of it is edible. I want it all.
There’s usually a case with prepared food that I can pick up for later. And if I’m lucky, a freezer stocked with even more items. They’re small markets but also cafes, with selections of their own branded goods. Each has a specific aesthetic and its own vibe.
These shops are aspirational. They tell me that my life could be polished, sane and significantly better if I could just buy one of everything in here.
I’ve watched as a handful of superettes opened in just the last few months, with the new Cookbook market and cafe in Larchmont, and just down the street, Suá, described on its website as “your local Sichuan superette.”
DTLA Cheese at Grand Central Market became DTLA Cheese Superette in Downtown L.A. earlier this year. My favorite shop in all of Pasadena is a mini market called Altadena Beverage and Market, where you can find Harry’s Berries while they’re in season, good Normandy butter, a selection of snacks to swoon over and weekend sandwiches from Austin Boos.
The hybrid mini market and eatery is a business model that DTLA Cheese Superette co-owner Reed Herrick thinks is more reflective of today’s consumers and the realities of running a traditional restaurant.
“It’s hard to open a restaurant,” Herrick says, standing in front of the cheese case at the downtown shop, located at the corner of South Broadway and 4th Street. “We want to cook but we have to be able to showcase what we do in a different way and be broader.”
When Herrick and partner Lydia Clarke moved to their current space, they continued to offer the cheese selection they’re known for alongside Herrick’s menu of excellent salads, grilled cheese sandwiches and soups. The bread case near the register is something to marvel at, with towering golden baguettes and sandwiches made with the fresh breads. But they also introduced produce, a case filled with prepared frozen foods and a wide array of pantry goods.
It’s a restaurant, but it’s also a one-stop shop for your week’s groceries or that housewarming or birthday gift you need to pick up after work.
“It’s the way people shop nowadays,” he says. “They need to be enticed by a lot of little different things. And if you’re going to spend a lot of money at Ralphs or Whole Foods, why not spend it at a mom-and-pop shop that really cares about every product on the shelf?”
At Suá, there’s an entire section devoted to Fly by Jing products made by co-owner Jing Gao. It’s her full line of condiments and spices, her cookbook and hot pot starter sets complete with the branded hot pots.
Containers of kung pao chicken, cold sesame noodles, cucumber salad and whole rotisserie chickens fill a well-lit refrigerated case.
It’s all presented in a bright, open space surrounded by blonde wood and clean lines. Is the shop always flooded with sunlight? I could use the interior to start a Pinterest board for my dream home.
“But what’s a superette?” Julie Campoy asks during a recent call. Campoy is the owner of Julienne Fine Foods and Celebrations in San Marino.
Decades before superette was a buzz word, Julienne Fine Foods and Celebrations and Joan’s on Third in Beverly Grove helped introduce the gourmet market and cafe model to Los Angeles diners. The deli cases at each, stocked with premade salads and proteins, trump the cases at your local Erewhon.
“I love it!” Campoy says. “I love that you can find all sorts of things and that it’s very curated and definitely the owner’s vision. The more the merrier.”
Campoy’s mother Susan opened Julienne Fine Foods and Celebrations in 1985. It started as mostly a catering operation with some prepared items for sale and a small seating area with five tables. In 1992, the Campoy family took over the two adjacent storefronts and built out the kitchen areas and the gourmet market. You could sit down for a full service meal, then shop for later.
Growing up in the Pasadena area, I frequented Julienne, and always wanted to live in the market. With display shelves that look like they belong in a French country kitchen, plenty of lush greenery and even a fireplace mantle in the back, I always felt like I was in Europe somewhere, in the home of someone glamorous.
“It evolved organically,” Campoy says. “In the 90s, things were changing on a socioeconomic level and more woman were going back to work and there was a need for prepared foods.”
By 2000, Susan had decided to scale back on catering and double down on the prepared foods with the installation of the shop’s freezers. They also started selling merchandise, wines and even CDs.
“My mom would say we’re not a soap store and we’re not a CD store,” Campoy says. “But I was like yes we are. We would play music and people would say they loved it so we sold the CDs.”
Campoy took over Julienne after her mother died in 2009. She navigated the business through the pandemic, selling produce boxes, toilet paper and pantry goods that were impossible to find at the larger grocery store chains. But the real lifesaver, for both the business and its loyal customers, was the refrigerated, freezer and deli cases full of prepared foods.
“Prepared food is about 65 to 70% of our business,” Campoy says. “It might look like a small operation from the front, but we have 60 employees who make 200 items a day from scratch.”
The business has transitioned into more of something in line with the newer superettes, operating as an order at the counter and takeout cafe alongside the market.
“I decided that the full service restaurant had run its course for many different business reasons, so I had to reimagine everything,” she says.
Now, she offers tea service and formal dinners just on Thursday nights. But she’s hoping to introduce more experiences in the new year, with wine tastings, wreath making and partnerships with other people in the community to help utilize the restaurant patio.
“I’ve always loved Julienne,” says Joan McNamara, standing in the middle of the Joan’s on Third on 3rd Street.
Her black and white shop has been a prepared foods mecca for Angelenos for decades, known best for her Chinese chicken salad and short rib grilled cheese, her bakery case and the Joan’s packaged snacks that include cheese straws and potato chips.
It’s the type of place where if you request something, you might just see it on the menu tomorrow.
“Last week we had a couple of people ask for chicken noodle soup,” McNamara says. “People have colds, we should make it every day. So I told the kitchen to make chicken noodle soup through February.”
McNamara opened Joan’s on Third in 1995 as a small market. In 1998, she expanded into the space next door, building out the kitchen and a proper deli case. Being from New York City, McNamara says that the original Dean and Deluca, which opened in Soho in 1977, was one of her inspirations. The other was Julienne Fine Foods and Celebrations.
“Susan had such beautiful products,” McNamara says. “I would go on these spy missions and measure where things were and write them down because I just thought everything looked so beautiful.”
The two women eventually became friends and would end up calling each other to compare prices for items or to chit chat over the years.
Like Campoy, McNamara treats her shop as her own Pinterest board, personally selecting every item on the shelves. The same goes for the prepared foods in the refrigerated case along the left wall of the shop, where you’ll find everything from condiments to composed meals and salads.
“Whenever the kitchen is making a big batch of something they bring me a little spoon so I can taste it,” she says. “Everything is tasted.”
And like Campoy, McNamara is excited by all the new superettes opening around town, but she says she’s always looking to evolve the business. Her next venture is frozen foods, with a growing collection of entrees, flatbreads and sauces along the left wall of the shop.
“This place is home for me, and I want it to be home for everyone,” she says. “And now, everyone can have a part of Joan’s on Third in their freezer.”
Here’s a guide and shopping list for discovering L.A.’s superettes, new and old: