Publication Date: Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Shop Talk: Kiki's candies forced from downtown
Shop Talk: Kiki's candies forced from downtown
(February 09, 2005) by Daryl Savage
KIKI'S SWEET ADIEU . . . It could have ended on a sour note, but Kiki's, the celebrated candy store in downtown Palo Alto, has found a new building in an unlikely location.
Owner Christy Weinstein knew she would go out of business if she accepted a steep rent increase, boosting her rent to $18,500 a month. Yikes!
After much thought, she decided to vacate her small 1,850-square-foot shop at 540 Emerson St. and grab the vacant 4,300-square-foot building at 3950 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, way down in the southeast corner of town -- the former home of Palo Alto Joe's and, more recently, Stoa restaurant, which moved into Downtown Palo Alto, to 632 Emerson St.
"It's a big move. The place is huge," Weinstein said. "I hate to leave downtown, but landlords get so greedy. They see you're doing well and they raise the rent. I don't know how any business can stay downtown unless you're a Restoration Hardware."
It looks like an April opening for the new Kiki's: "I'm hoping for some overlap. I want to close on a Friday and reopen on the next Monday."
She has big plans for the for the big new space: "It will become a party venue. There's already a kitchen there, so we'll be able to bake Kiki's cupcakes. We might hire a baker and have cooking classes for kids." That's in addition to the lavish assortment of candy that has already made Kiki's famous.
She thinks she's made the right decision. "Sixty percent of my business is corporate and birthday parties. My biggest client is Google. And the main complaint I get around here is the parking," There are 50 parking spaces on the new site.
Kiki's celebrates its two-year anniversary this Friday and will make the formal announcement then about the bittersweet move.
A DAZZLING DIS-UNITED COMMUNICATION . . . Anyone with even the teensiest bit of shopping savvy knows that if they're directed to a Stanford shopping mall jeweler with the little blue box, it's got to be Tiffany's.
An e-mail from United Airlines told Bay Area shoppers to do just that last Saturday, Feb. 5 -- a Valentine's Day promotion that said "Cupid" would fly in at 1 p.m. with special certificates for free round-trip airfares, Samsonite luggage and other gifts .
Hopeful travelers streamed in, but the store was caught off guard. Store officials had no idea of the United promotion. One bejeweled Tiffany employee told gift-seekers: "We have no affiliation with United and we don't know anything about this."
One o'clock came and went. No Cupid. No gifts. Diehards began to look like unhappy campers stranded at a fogged-in airport.
A scam? Nope, just a flight delay. About 2 p.m., a hunky tuxedo-clad chap holding bags brimming with envelopes quickly donned white Cupid wings in front of Tiffany's. But he was gently told by the security guard at the door to "please move along."
Cupid obliged, but was soon swamped by shoppers asking for the special gift from United Airlines. With a genuinely accommodating smile, he handed out envelopes with, as promised, gift certificates and free trips.
MIDTOWN'S 'TRIPLE THREAT' . . . Even before Cafe Sophia closes its doors Thursday in the Charleston Center and readies its new location at 2723 Middlefield Road, the former site of University Florists, local coffee drinkers have already labeled the move as Midtown's "triple threat."
It refers to the close proximity of Starbucks and the Palo Alto Cafe to Sophia's new location, all within sipping distance of each other. Starting at Starbucks and walking north on Middlefield to the soon-to-open Cafe Sophia is 79 steps, latte to latte. Continuing on to Palo Alto Cafe is another 96 steps.
Throw in the coffee at 7-Eleven and Safeway and there are, count 'em, five spots to buy coffee in Midtown, all within one city block. Make that six if you walk a bit south to Crème de Café.
Peet's Coffee and Tea, meanwhile, is poised to set up shop in Sophia's old Charleston Center spot later this spring. The Peet's deal was struck by San Francisco-based Village Properties -- the same folks who brought Walgreen's to Midtown, who said they weren't yet ready to talk about other plans for Charleston, where tenants are jittery.
As for the Midtown caffeine concentration, is it just me or does anyone else miss Bergman's Department Store? They didn't serve coffee.
IS WALL STREET TREMBLING? . . .Are pork belly futures going up? Are Eurodollars coming down? Is Wall Street as we know it doomed? Now's your chance to ask the expert. The president of E*Trade Financial Services, Lou Klobuchar, is flying in from Chicago to answer people's questions at the official grand opening of E*Trade's new office in Palo Alto -- once referred to as "the wooded Wall Street of the West" -- at 124 University Ave., Thursday, Feb. 17.
Maybe they thought no one would notice, but E*Trade actually opened its doors in Palo Alto in early December -- well, it wasn't official. Klobuchar will now do the honors along with local electeds, business leaders and others invited to next week's event.
But it won't all be party, pomp and ceremony: There will be mini-seminars on topics ranging from online stock and options trading to retirement plans. It all takes place from 4 to 7 p.m.
EICHLER OUTSIDE, DESIGNER FASHIONS INSIDE . . . It may look like just another classic Palo Alto Eichler on Middlefield Road, but inside is big business. Elaine Goldman is selling high-end clothing as part of her continuing "French Rags" show.
The add-on second floor of Goldman's home at 3332 Middlefield Road is filled with racks of designer samples of jackets, tops, pants and skirts. On the walls are swatches of every imaginable color and design. The clothes are not cheap. Pants and tops go for $220 to $280 each. Jackets can go as high as $550.
"They're Dana Buchman-like," Goldman said, referring to the founder of a chain of designer-clothing stores that strive to blend a glamour-feel of 1940s and 1950s fashion with practical use.
Customers come by appointment only, where they try on clothes, then place their orders and receive their custom-made clothing in three to six weeks.
The sample clothes stay in Goldman's home until Saturday, at which point she folds and carefully packs the hundreds of items in boxes and ships them to the next home for the next show -- where a Tupperware Party meets a high-end fashion show.
Heard a rumor about your favorite store or business moving out, or in, down the block or across town? Daryl Savage will check it out. She can be e-mailed at dsavage@paweekly.com.
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