Local watering hole Pangaea Two Brews Cafe recently expanded its operations to include a bottle shop with about 200 beer selections. The bottle shop opened earlier this month, and owner Rob Archie said he has plans to add a delivery service in the Curtis Park neighborhood in September. “We had our grand opening Aug. 6, and it was full in here all day,” Archie said. “The response has been really positive.” Pangaea, located at 2743 Franklin Blvd., is marked by its selection of Belgian beers on tap, and Archie told The Sacramento Press in a previous article that he has long wanted to bring a bottle shop to offer those beers at to-go prices. Beers are stored in a refrigerator spanning much

Vintage furnishings and accessories are the “new” wares for sale at a Midtown business opening next week, but despite their antique nature, co-owner Stefan Bloom said it won’t look like grandma’s attic. The Scout Living collective will open June 1 at 1215 18th St. in what Bloom called the hub of Midtown. Visitors who remember the Beyond Gotham jewelry store – which closed last September – might not recognize the building, which has been rearranged and now holds 11 separate areas ranging from 100 to 200 square feet full of vintage furniture and home décor. “It’s not an antique store – it’s more of a store for home furnishings that are antiques,” said co-owner Erin Boyle, Bloom’s wife. T

The Upper Playground clothing store on J Street has closed, and a new store owned by a former Upper Playground manager will take its spot. Aaron Hearing will open a new store in the same location, but he refused to comment on Upper Playground, saying, “It’s none of my business.” Upper Playground, located at 2524 J St., was a locally owned franchise with corporate offices in San Francisco. Other locations for the clothing store are in Seattle, Portland, Berkeley, Mexico City and London. When The Sacramento Press contacted Upper Playground’s corporate office Dec. 15, officials claimed no knowledge of the store’s closing, though an employee who answered the phone at the Sacramento locatio

Marty DeAnda started a vinyl record store by accident with a little help from Louis Armstrong. Medium Rare Records is in the offices of the Dig Music label, which DeAnda co-founded. The label represents local artists such as Jackie Greene, Chris Webster and Sal Valentino. The business is located in The Urban Hive at 1931 H St. and was pretty typical of a recording label office, with couches and music-themed décor, before becoming a retail store. The office, visible from the sidewalk, featured a mannequin of Louis Armstrong in the window, staring out at 20th Street, and passers-by routinely came in to ask about it. “I’d have 30 people coming by each day,” DeAnda said. “I figured I might

A new East Sacramento shop is offering commuters an alternate method to get to work or run errands around town – electric bicycles. Mike Majors opened The Electric Bike Shop at 3644 J St. on Dec. 11. “No one really knows much about them,” Majors said. “There are other stores that sell them here in town, but they don’t market them much.” Majors sells electric bicycles that come complete with batteries, electric motors and pedals, so riders can either use them as standard bicycles, electric motorbikes or a combination of the two. “I like to ride mine with the pedals, but if I get to a stop sign, I’ll use the throttle to get up to speed when I take off,” Majors said. Federal law requires

A trendy Midtown boutique called Beyond Gotham is expected to close in mid-September — another victim of the poor economy. Signs advertising a closing sale have already been taped to the windows of the store, which sells women's clothing and accessories at 1215 18th St. Located on a popular block in the Handle District, the boutique was going strong until about two years ago. Female customers who would buy new jewelry every time they had Christmas parties, weddings and other special occasions to go to aren't making those purchases now, said an employee. "Women are the first ones to stop buying for themselves in bad times," she said. Rebecca Polstra and the store's other owners had orig

A new Grocery Outlet is set to open Thursday in Midtown. Local residents and state workers seemed not to recognize the place when owners Mindi and Ken Admire offered a sneak peak during a ribbon-cutting celebration late Wednesday afternoon. A market-scene mural still marks the corner store at 17th Street and Capitol Avenue, where Rick's Uptown Market operated. But following a costly renovation, the 9,000-square-foot space is much more neighborhood market than convenience store. The sidewalk in front is lined with wooden produce bins holding tomatoes, avocados, onions and fruit. Cheeses, meats and more produce line back walls. A grab-and-go section in front offers pasta salad, sandwiches

A recycled clothing maven has come full circle, opening a new Midtown store just steps away from her first job in the business. After growing up in the central city, Elizabeth Kelley opened her second Freestyle Clothing Exchange Saturday at the corner of 21st and L streets — about half a block from where she got her first job as an ironer at Cheap Thrills costume shop. Kelley opened Freestyle at 2101 L St. as a sister store to her first resale shop, which opened in Citrus Heights in 2007. The return to Midtown feels like a return to her roots, she said. "I really have a lot of love for that area," she said. "It's like my home." She was just 19 when she started working at Cheap Thrills.

Krazy Mary's owner Mary Kawano said the store is thriving after its return to her home turf in East Sacramento. The boutique moved out of Midtown earlier this summer to a store at 3230 Folsom Blvd. — almost right back to the same place where the business opened 10 years ago. The contemporary designer store opened at 3200 Folsom Blvd. in 2000. The store was the first to carry premium denim and other fashions in the area, she said. The East Sacramento resident said she moved her first store out of her neighborhood and over to 2527 J St. in 2005 after competitors including Dara Denim and Barby K opened in Midtown. "That's where our market was," Kawano said. "I've always missed East Sac, 'c

I feel compelled to confess this simple truth: I love Target.  My Wife and I shop there all the time, not to say we shop excessively. We both think of ourselves as modest and frugal, and we rely on their affordable prices to get the products we need regularly: food, clothes, and household goods.   We loath Wal-Mart, and at the same time, I realize it is completely hypocritical to give Target a free pass,  since they too are a large faceless multinational corporation, easily vivified.  I also realize that this is not a perfect world, and we’ve all got to make our own way in it.  That being said since I heard that a new Target Store was going  to be built in walking distance from my front do

Sacramento will be losing more than the most eclectic greeting card shop in town when Etc. closes next week. The city is also losing a one-of-a-kind neighborhood gathering spot. Owners Jeff Heald and Abdon Legrand — with help from a glittery, life-size chrome man standing sentry outside the shop — have welcomed shoppers and passersby to the corner of 21st and L streets for two decades. The pair are closing their shop — previously known as Postcards Etc. — and moving to Mexico. They plan to open a new business: Café Como No (Cafe Why Not) in Punta de Mita, near Puerto Vallarta, said Heald, 57. Heald grew up in the Sacramento area. However, 47-year-old Legrand grew up on the Gulf of Mexic

Sara and Mike Barlow are one outdoorsy couple. They carved out their own trail to the fledgling store they opened in Old Sacramento, Trailmix.Net. After falling in love in a small Idaho college town, they honeymooned in a remote cabin reached by water-taxi in Washington's North Cascades National Park. Both were into hiking and camping in the Pacific Northwest. But they actually had to relocate to San Francisco to get more hardcore. "It wasn't until we moved to California that we kind of went crazy with it," said Mike Barlow, 37. "We went though this shock of people congestion. So we would escape up into the Sierra. That was how we got our fix." She took up backpacking with him and they