Art and Science of Eyewear, the Lafayette eyeglass store that branched out to downtown Walnut Creek on N. Main St. several years ago is closing up shop and will focus on their Lafayette location at La Fiesta Square. A poster on the door notes:
We have consolidated our efforts into our flagship store in Lafayette to better serve you! Open since 1996, our popular downtown Lafayette location is just 3.8 miles from here and 2 blocks off the Central Lafayette Highway 24 Exit.
From the Ice Skate Walnut Creek website:
Saturday, November 17, 2012
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Festivities to include:
- Free Skate 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- Face Painting
- Music
- Magician
- Skating Performances
- Food & Beverages
- Raffle Prizes
and more!
On the way to check out the Le Gateau Elegant bakery on Newell I passed by the white building getting demolished to make way for condos. As you can see from the above photo, they are demolishing it top down, floor by floor, I imagine because they can’t get enough of a perimeter to demolish the whole building at once.
Traffic-wise it’s kind of annoying. I had to make a right then do a u-turn in a few places, but after a while I’d get used to it.
Recently I received an email from a reader who attached this photo of downtown Walnut Creek pointing out the lack of garbage cleanup. Has anyone noticed the garbage situation getting worse in downtown Walnut Creek? I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary or maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention.
From an email:
Today at 5:00 we are having our ribbon cutting ceremony with the Chamber of Commerce. At the ceremony, we will also be partnering with DoGood Vines to promote Venture as an official Drop Off site for Central County Homeless Outreach. Customers that drop off socks, hats, gloves or blankets now through end of December will receive a 2-for-1 voucher to Town Hall Theatre’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
It’s good to see Venture in Lafayette helping out with local charities.
photo by Flickr user The-Tim
Thanks to realtor Brian Sparr for compiling this list of home and condo sales for Beyond the Creek. Sales for Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Orinda and Moraga are included. Both PDF and Excel reports are included below:
October 2012 Sales (PDF format)
October 2012 Sales (Excel format)
Back in August I noted that the Martinez bakery Le Gateau Elegant was relocating to Walnut Creek, and as of a couple of days ago they are now open in the Terrace Shopping Center (where Pacific Bay Coffee and George’s Giant Hamburgers) on Newell Ave. I had a chance to check out the bakery in Martinez while on jury duty, and the decor is very similar in Walnut Creek.
While there of course I tried the chocolate chip cookie for comparison purposes and it was good. Take a look at some of the pastries below, they look delicious. From what I hear they already have a big following among nearby Kaiser employees.
Although they offer plenty of bakery items in front, I think they have a huge wedding and specialty cake business behind the scenes as well. You can see their cake options here.
More photos of the inside including gingerbread man cookies after the jump…
It’s that time again, Santa’s Workshop, aka photo studio, has been set up in the back of Broadway Plaza across from Boudin Bakery. Photos with Santa will be available beginning November 17th through December 24th. The schedule is:
Monday – Saturday: 10AM – 7PM
Sunday: 11AM – 6PM
Christmas Eve: 9AM – 5PM
Santa’s Breaks, Mon – Sun 2-3PM, Christmas Eve 1PM – 1:30PM
Back in July I noted that Forma Gym was moving from their prominent downtown Walnut Creek location to 1908 Olympic Blvd near 680, and finally had a chance to drop by to register for this year’s Turkey Trot. They are located at the former location of the Walnut Creek Sports and Fitness Club, and also took over membership for the Lafayette Health Club which closed earlier this year as well. According to their site, they offer group classes, martial arts, yoga, pilates, real rider cycling, TRX and cardio resistance. Membership options (sans prices) are available here. It looked nice inside, does anyone work out here? How is it?
The children’s drawing studio A Colorful Mind has closed recently in downtown Walnut Creek. Back in February I noted the opening so it hadn’t even been open a year. I was scouting birthday locations when I dropped by and couldn’t believe it was gone. It was really nice inside and the teacher there seemed great. Too bad this happened.