Business & Tech
Sprouts & Shutters: Let Them Eat Cake
Here's your biweekly roundup of retail, restaurant and other business news and happenings in Lamorinda and Central Contra Costa.
Wondering what new businesses are opening and changing in your town? Our biweekly “Sprouts & Shutters” column highlights restaurant, retail and other business news in the Central Contra Costa cities of Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill and Concord.
The succinctly named “Cake.” opened Sept. 11, replacing Teacake in downtown Lafayette’s La Fiesta Square. The new bakery specializes in—you guessed it—cake, made with local, seasonal and organic ingredients whenever possible. Cake’s co-owner and pastry chef Andrea Quinn has worked at popular Bay Area restaurants Rivoli, Chez Panisse, Moose’s and, most recently, Bay Wolf. Learn more and view some of Quinn’s cakes on Cake's facebook page. (Teacake’s closure was covered in an August column.)
Lafayette’s new Kabab-Burger expands Mediterranean options beyond dolmas and falafel with dishes like Sabich Sandwch (sliced fried eggplant, hummus, hard boiled egg and tahini), Schnitzel Plate (crispy fried chicken breast with Israeli salad) and its house Kabab Burger (seasoned mixed beef and lamb burger on toasted bun). The new eatery, owned by Lafayette residents Avi and Michaella Ben-Ari also offers many gluten-free and vegetarian options. Kabab-Burger opened a few months ago in Lava Pit’s old space next to Trader Joe’s in the Happy Valley Shopping Center.
Walnut Creek’s Build-A-Bear Workshop is scheduled to close its Broadway Plaza store Sept. 30. But parents will soon have another Teddy Bear factory to take their kids: Build-A-Bear is set to unveil a completely redesigned “concept store”, route: {:controller=>"articles", :action=>"show", :id=>"sprouts-shutters-bombay-nick-s-shoe-biz-build-a-bear-and-more"} -->—one of six in the country--in Pleasanton’s Stoneridge Shopping Center on Oct. 5.
Le Gateau Elegant relocates to Walnut Creek from Martinez next month. Read all about Walnut Creek’s newest bakery in , which , reopened under new ownership a week later. Get the details in Patch's recent .
Opening Update: Sprouts Farmers Market opened in Walnut Creek last week on the corner of Geary Road and North Main Street. You can read more about the new natural foods grocer in .
Opening Update: Anthropologie, covered in an opened and and
