How a beloved corner market hangs on in the corporate age
- Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
Maria Stewart knows she can count on Bob’s Market every time she needs an obscure ingredient for a new recipe.
Betsy Adler recalls how a Bob’s employee schooled her on how to make a to-die-for milkshake, spiked with amaretto and garnished with whipped cream.
And Hank, who declined to give his last name, loves visiting the meat and deli counter, where the staff greets him like an old friend. It reminds him of his childhood in Boston’s North End.
Bob’s in Santa Monica has a loyal following because of the big and little things. The wine guy (Mike, a veteran of decades in the restaurant business) and the meat guy (Ramiro) will take the time to help you plan your next meal. David “The Deli Lama” Golden remembers how you like your sandwich and asks about your kids. It’s the way the place smells and the way the employees treat you like family.
“This place? It’s like, you know, a flashback,” said Hank, 66, an actor who said he wasn’t sure his agent would want him to give his last name. “It’s like watching an old film that you saw when you were younger and you still love it. You know what I mean?”
A lot of you do know, because you wrote Essential California a couple of weeks ago to bestow your blessing on Bob’s, after I asked readers to tell me about local businesses they couldn’t live without. I’m still listening, so write EssentialCalifornia@latimes.com and we’ll try to give a shout-out to some other favorites.
Bob’s came into being in 1979, when founder Bob Rosenbloom bought out another grocery at 17th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard, in a building that once housed a roller-skating rink. Rosenbloom encouraged his staff to lean heavily on the family touch, which continues with his niece as general manager and his son, Rick, overseeing wine and liquor.
Rick Rosenbloom sports early-Roger-Daltry hair, befitting his other life as a musician and songwriter, and spends long hours curating Bob’s wine selections, which are described by his handwritten shelf signs. “2015 Croatian Red, $19.99,” reads one. “This beauty was crafted to age and is just now hitting its stride.”
The younger Rosenbloom (now 70) says he personally tasted every one of the 2,000 different selections, the evidence gathered beside him in the form of half-filled glasses, spread around his cluttered upstairs office.
“As Costco and Walmart and all the rest of them come in, the small markets go out of business. Not just here, but all across the country,” Rosenbloom said. ““This place is definitely a dying breed.”
Rosenbloom’s dad once controlled four markets on L.A.’s Westside, but sold off three and kept the most successful one, in Santa Monica’s Sunset Park neighborhood. (The Palms store remains in business, though under different ownership.)
Bob kept working well into his 80s and died last year at 92. Rick, who started behind the butcher’s counter at age 7, has helped keep the place going, on behalf of seven siblings and other family members.
Because the family owns the building, it doesn’t fear the big rent increases that have killed scores of other small businesses. And the business could even improve, the younger Rosenbloom predicts, because Gelson’s down the street is scheduled to close down temporarily to make way for a big housing development.
“With all that going on, our business will gain 20% or more. So we’d be stupid to shut it down,” he said. “This world is becoming more digital, even as we speak. So my sort of mission and soapbox is to maintain a little of this analog world.”
Today’s top stories
The space race is transforming Southern California’s economy — again
- Southern California’s space economy is being revitalized with a new wave of startups pushing technological boundaries.
- Southern California has an illustrious aerospace heritage, starting with some of the first first rocket experiments at what was to become the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — with the region later producing the X-15 rocket plane, the Apollo capsule and the space shuttles.
- A report by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. shows the county’s aerospace and defense industries added 11,000 jobs between 2022 and 2024. The jobs had an average wage of $141,110 — more than twice the county average.
Hundreds of thousands fewer students, but few closed schools. Can LAUSD make the math work?
- A steep drop in Los Angeles Unified student enrollment — 27% over about 10 years and 44% over about 20 — has not been matched by proportionate school closures, a report says.
- The contrast is creating a math problem for Los Angeles Unified: how to cut costs while also preserving what’s most important for students — and also best for employees.
- The challenge ahead is laid out in a study by the local nonprofit GPSN that acknowledges there are neither perfect nor easy answers.
ICE will ‘ramp up’ immigration raids in Los Angeles, other ‘sanctuary cities,’ border advisor says
- President Trump’s border advisor told reporters Thursday that federal authorities planned to increase immigration raids in Los Angeles and other so-called sanctuary cities, with Chicago likely the next target.
- “You’re going to see a ramp-up of operations in New York; you’re going to see a ramp-up of operations continue in L.A., Portland, Seattle, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE,” Tom Homan said.
- Since June, Southern California has been ground zero of thousands of immigration arrests as well as legal battles over whether the raids violate the U.S. Constitution.
What else is going on
- ‘It’s happening everywhere’: 1 in 3 ICE detainees are held in overcrowded facilities, data show
- The challenge facing the Democratic Party is “weakness,” Newsom says.
- Trump says Beverly Hills residents are dealing with people stealing items from their cars, but locals say otherwise.
- California Democrats and Republicans agree on one big thing: They support UC, a poll shows.
- More dust storms called haboobs are coming to California, thanks to climate change.
- New data uncover another hidden cost of EV ownership: high insurance premiums.
Commentary and opinions
- To solve the wildfire crisis, we have to let the myth of “the wild” die, argues staff writer Noah Haggerty.
- Columnist Michael Hiltzik asks, Why does Trump care so much about cash bail?
- Slain L.A. Times columnist Ruben Salazar matters more than ever, 55 years later, writes columnist Gustavo Arellano.
This morning’s must reads
He came to Los Angeles 33 years ago. Now a man sent back to Mexico and his wife faced an impossible decision. Should she and their U.S. children join him in Mexico? Or stay in Inglewood?
Other must reads
- ChatGPT pulled a teen into a “dark and hopeless place” before he took his life, a lawsuit against OpenAI alleges.
- Lucha libre and leather: Latinos rule the L.A. goth scene.
- Have anxiety? So do these comedians. Here are the strategies that help them cope.
For your downtime
Going out
- Chuck E. Cheese wants to grow up. What it’s like inside the new, adult-focused Chuck’s Arcade.
- Where to camp last-minute near L.A. for Labor Day weekend.
- Nobu Los Angeles has a new chef. Is it still worth the hype? Was it ever?
Staying in
- Books: Choose your L.A. literary adventure with these five new novels and writer hangouts.
- Recipes: Here’s a recipe for Gu Grocery’s sesame citrus cold noodles.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.
A question for you: What’s the most memorable thing you did this summer?
Judith Turian writes, “Magical authentic 3 hour safari at Safari West, Santa Rosa.”
Brian Brady writes, “Watching the star-studded cast perform “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl. Cynthia Erivo and Andy Lambert were awesome, but the stars in the smaller roles were also great. I particularly liked Josh Gad, although he only had one song.”
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally ... your photo of the day
Today’s great photo is from the Times’ Christopher Reynolds at Downtown Ojai’s newest hotel, which has reopened with 50 total rooms, two dining venues and rates that hint at the town’s short supply of lodging.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
In this episode, we bring you the update on how an Altadena resident and her neighborhood are coming along, plus a re-run of the two-part series we did on the Poppyfields people back in June.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
