Santa Cruz Market, Sticky Finger Bakery, Stephen's Market and Grill, Ventura

Three new places have opened up in August around my house, and I’ve been in all three already, but haven’t had enough to call for a full fledge review. These are just first impressions of people trying hard to get their businesses off the ground, and I intend on visiting them all again soon.

Those who have lived in Ventura for years remember Jues Market, on the corner of Main and Santa Cruz. Walking distance from my house, it did play a small part in my deciding to move to the Midtown area of Ventura. Dorothy was always at the register, and her family had owned the market for decades. They had a great meat counter, fresh vegetables, a decent wine selection, a selection of food staples, and some Asian food supplies befitting the family culture.

When the family retired, they sold the store, which then went through a few owners, losing something of the store flavor, until finally, the store turned into an overgrown liquor store. The neighborhood people who would by fresh meat or veggies, or people like me who would send the kids to the store to pick up some missing item for that night’s dinner stopped coming in. The name changed to Green Market, thankfully divorcing itself from the Jues legacy. The store’s food was overpriced, and would often go bad on the shelves, and finally it shut down.

Changes started to happen in the store a few months back, and walking by I could see the improvements going on inside. New refrigerators, shelving and a meat counter all came back, and the interior, which was dreary even in the Jues days, was spruced up. The parking lot was redone, the exterior painted, and like the rest of the neighborhood, I looked forward to the opening.

Now, Santa Cruz Market, the store looks great. Like Jues many years ago, it has a meat counter and fresh vegetables. They have a sandwich counter, which uses Boar’s Head Meat, and it looks like they’ll be doing several more things with prepared food. Now, the Asian food-stuff is gone, with some Middle-Eastern staples coming in. Everyone is friendly and again I stop in for fresh vegetables or other odds and ends that I don’t feel like running to Vons for. On two occasions I’ve bought hamburger from the meat counter to barbecue, and both times it was excellent.

Sticky Fingers Baking Company opened across Main Street from Santa Cruz Market, and I want to like it, but on my first impression it was only okay. The owner has been doing baked goods for some time, and has being looking for a storefront in the Midtown area. The space is cute and smells good, but my girls and I tried a cupcake, a scone and some cookies, and found them somewhat uninspiring. I wouldn’t spit them out, but at this point I wouldn’t go back on the strength of their taste.

I had some coffee as well, and though it was good, it wasn’t great or even worth the wait. The owner brews one cup at a time, so it came well after I was into my scone. A dry scone without coffee or tea certainly loses some of its flavor.

Sticky Fingers is close by, and I’ll try them again to update this report. At the moment though, there wasn’t anything that makes me want to race back in.

Stephen’s Market and Grill seems a bit confused still. It occupies the huge space that was once Chuy’s at 2632 Main, and they haven’t really warmed up the space. It’s open with a handful of tables, and gave me the feeling that I was eating in the middle of a basketball court. They have some Greek market items in the front of the space, cheeses, olives and such, which I’ll try at some point in the future.

They have dinner items which were in the $15-20 a plate range, which looked and smelled delicious. But I’d say that I wouldn’t spend that much to eat in that space.

When my son and I went, we just wanted something to snack on before playing pool at Stix, so we split the Greek Burger combo. It was surprisingly good! A large burger, a good size salad and a healthy portion of fries, all tasty and fresh made for a good late night snack. Not quite enough for a full meal for two, it certainly was a good size for one person.

Again, I plan on visiting all these places again and I’ll give a more detail report.