CLOSED: Wonderful Weekly Wine Tastings at Vintage Grocers


Vintage Grocers, Westlake Village’s favorite neighborhood homegrown market in The Promenade at Westlake, hosts free weekly wine tastings. The store has a beautiful, intimate wine room where they pour unique, seasonal varieties – whether it be chilled whites for the warm summer, complementary meat-pairing bottles to gear up for a weekend barbecue, or the cool, newest brand hitting the shelves. Guests can also enjoy light bites and a beautiful selection of cheeses from a house-made charcuterie platter to snack on throughout the tasting.

The next wine tasting is tomorrow from 11am to 2pm when they will be pouring Kung Fu Girl Reisling!

Vintage Grocers at the Westlake Promenade
140 Promenade Way, Suite A
Westlake Village, CA 91362
Phone: (805) 230-0010

The store publicizes these events on its Facebook page, so follow them! While you’re at it, follow Agoura Hills Mom, too! And you can join the closed group, Moms of Agoura Hills, to crowdsource local recommendations, advice, and brag about your own business or successes or cute pictures of your family!

CLOSED: Local Fare at Vintage Grocers

box of groceries

Vintage Grocers opened last fall in The Promenade at Westlake, offering a huge choice of groceries and fresh food, with an emphasis on locally sourced items. Those are not limited to fresh ingredients for the cheese or poke bar—Vintage Grocers also sources packaged and non-perishable items from nearby farms and artisans. Some of their local growers will be at the Westlake store this Saturday, April 1, from 11AM to 2PM so you can meet them, learn about how they make their food, and sample their products!

Vintage Grocers truly is a market for the community, by the community

I was amazed to see what you can get at Vintage Grocers that is made locally. My family and I enjoyed a sampling of these products recently so we could share them with you, too.

Breakfast

Trail mix with bowl of oatmeal

I’ve been getting up early during the week, and to make breakfast easy and quick I’ve been whipping up large batches of quinoa oatmeal and freezing it ahead of time. I pop some in the microwave to heat while I’m fixing my coffee and feeding the cat, and when it’s hot I toss some Perfect Balance Trail Mix on top.

trail mix closeup

I love the mixture of flavors from the unusual (for trail mix) ingredients: including pistachios, organic goji berries, cashews, Canadian farm fresh cranberries, walnuts, organic mulberries, Hawaiian macadamia nuts, and more. The company is based in Venice and they use mostly organic foods. There are little cubes of raw cacao that melt in the hot oatmeal and I forget that I’m eating a healthy dish.

Snack

granola bites

I’ll admit it: I don’t have a lot of time or patience when I get hungry and I get the munchies in the middle of the day. I will literally reach for the closest food at hand that is ready to eat. That’s why when I found Lark Ellen Granola (from Ojai!) bites in my Vintage Grocer bundle, I was excited and I knew that I would devour these bites. And I wouldn’t get a stomach ache or feel guilty, because they are made of sprouted seeds and nuts and full of taste. I spent the weekend decluttering, and I was annoyed every time I had to stop to eat because I was on a roll. Once I started grabbing a few chunks of granola bites, though, I could continue and snack at the same time. These are perfect for kids’ (or parents’) lunches!

Dinner

eggs tortillas salsa

We got this adorable little package of Kaliko Farms Eggs and we simply couldn’t wait to try them, but it was dinnertime. Easy solution: eggs for dinner! We have breakfast for dinner at least every two weeks, and in general we consume a lot of eggs, so the whole family was eager to see how much better or different these would taste. Kaliko Farms is based in Malibu and their animals are treated humanely, because “happy, healthy birds will produce top-quality eggs.”

boy eating eggs

The verdict: each kid basically inhaled his eggs with no tortilla or salsa needed. My husband and I opted for taco-style eggs, and we loved them. So there is something to the idea that local, organic eggs from happy birds taste great! Kaliko Farms will be at the event on Saturday, so you can meet the people behind the eggs!

Dessert

Beachy Cream Ice Cream

Since summer is coming and we’re already getting nice warm days and evenings, ice cream is on the menu at our house again! This Beachy Cream Ice Cream from Santa Monica is made of organic ingredients using dairy from a creamery in Marin County. Local farmers’ markets supply the ingredients to make flavorings from scratch.

boy smiling at ice cream

boy eating ice cream

happy boy with ice cream

My husband loves bananas and ice cream, so he definitely enjoyed this banana-flavored ice cream, even more because I topped it with Malibu Honey, from bees that gathered nectar from flowers in the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains. And if you’ve ever glanced at this website before, you know I am a big fan of the Santa Monica mountains. I asked him how it tasted together and he said “Good!” (He’s not a man of many words, so I can embellish by adding my own opinion: it’s delicious.)

beachy cream ice cream and malibu honey

This is a small sampling of locally-sourced products you can get at Vintage Grocers. I encourage you to visit their new store in Westlake and see what strikes your fancy. The store is huge and roomy, so you won’t even bump into other shoppers while you are perusing their shelves. You might find a new favorite thing for your pantry.

Hey! What About Mom?!

I got to the end of this post and realized there are no pictures of me in it, so here’s a selfie with an Apricot Lane avocado.

woman holding avocado

It looked so good and it was perfectly ripe after sitting in a basket for a few days so I put it on a salad. Bonus! These avocados will be at the store next week!

ripe avocado cut in half
salad topped with avocado
Head on down to Vintage Grocers (and come this weekend to meet with local growers!) to see for yourself!

Vintage Grocers Meet the Growers flyer
Special thanks to Vintage Grocers for sponsoring this post. All opinions are our own.

CLOSED: Vintage Grocers Open in Westlake Promenade

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Last weekend the new Vintage Grocers market opened at Westlake Promenade where Bristol Farms used to be. The Grand Opening featured a live band, tastings, a ribbon cutting ceremony, and gift bags for the store’s first 500 shoppers.

vintage grocers ribbon cutting

Owner Paige Laurie and market director Eric Fuchser cutting the ribbon at Vintage Grocers Westlake Village

(Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images)

This is the latest local new business I’ve gotten to check out and share with you. Market director Eric Fuchser led a group of local media around the store about an hour before it officially opened, and we could tell that there was buzz building because would-be shoppers were trying to enter early!

Vintage Grocers crowd

(Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images)

This is only the second location of Vintage Grocers, the first being at the old Trancas Market site in Malibu. It’s what I like to call “last chance groceries” before heading up to camping at Leo Carillo or Sycamore Canyon, or when we used to accompany my husband when he surfed at County Line. (It’s been a while!) Recently on the way to a camping trip I had to stop at the Malibu store to get peanut butter. And jelly. And bread! What is normally a frugal meal cost way more there, so I was curious to see what prices are like at this new store.

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At first I wasn’t even looking at prices, because the Westlake Vintage Grocers is impressive in its size, spanking brand new-ness, and pretty things to look at every way you turn. There are several fresh food counters including a juice bar, a sushi bar, a hot meal deli and burrito bar, a fresh poke bar, a butcher counter with an impressive spread, an olive bar, a private wine tasting room, and more!

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Private wine-tasting room, with giant TV for watching the game (not shown)

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The market is proud to source their produce, meat, and seafood as locally as possible. In fact, they source many other products from local makers as well, including Malibu honey, bloody mary mix, and even tequila, samples of which were in the most impressive media gift bag I’ve ever received.

vintage grocers gift bag

Unbagging this was fun!

But after the sparkles in my eyes wore off, I did peek at some prices to see how they would compare to my normal grocery store visits. A large tub of greek yogurt: $4.79 (at my usual store, $4.99). A 6-pack of Mike’s hard lemonade: $9.99 (at my usual store, same). There are plenty of things that are much more expensive, but I can survive on those two things, at least if I’m stopping in to get some items on my way out of the Promenade after a movie or a browsing session at the book store.

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The addition of Vintage Grocers to the Westlake Promenade seems like a good one for our community. Not only do they provide a great place to stop in and get anything under the sun, but they also employ about 85 people from the surrounding area. The store carries some unique items, and I look forward to going back for lunch or dinner to try their fresh foods.

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Vintage Grocers is celebrating its grand opening all week long with activities that are open to anyone each day:

Tuesday, October 4 – Mommy & Me (11am – 1pm)
Bring your kids for a complimentary Mommy & Me experience.

Wednesday, October 5 – Farmer’s Market (5pm – 7pm)
Meet our local artisans and enjoy demos and tastings around the store.

Thursday, October 6 – Sports Night (5pm – 7pm)
Enjoy craft beer tasting and our Build Your Own Burrito Bar before the big game. Show your team spirit for a discount.

Friday, October 7 – Date Night (5pm – 7pm)
Bring your significant other to the Wine Room to enjoy the oyster bar, desserts, etc.

Saturday, October 8 – Kids’ Carnival (1pm – 4pm)
Bring the little ones for an all-day event featuring face painting, music and prizes.

Vintage Grocers
7:00 AM – 9:00 PM daily
100 Promenade Way
Thousand Oaks CA 91362

Have you been into the new store? What do you think?