Justin, you are adorable! Also, there’s an Oliver’s in Santa Rosa. It kicks ass, but the one in Cotati is better.

Re: browsers, yeah I was thinking of developing some kind of wordpress google maps plugin, but instead I may write a post on how freaking hard this was to accomplish for IE. For now this neatlink of supreme frustration will have to suffice.

Re: Fiesta, nope, it’s a local store.

Marcia, thanks. Check it out, another indie grocery store. I’ve added it, though it may require a shift+reload to show up on your browsers.

Montecito huh. I’ve never been over there. Time to get out and explore Santa Rosa again. Place has kind of got that little big town feel.

I think it’s sad that the places you have lived have had so few choices that you take (although admittedly adorable) pleasure in our few independent markets, which for the most part (except for G&G) have had to go “gourmet” to survive. BTW, there are two G&Gs. Also, where have you been?!

Well, I was not entirely forthcoming about the groceries available in my previous lives. Before moving to Santa Rosa, I lived in Carrboro, North Carolina (right next to Chapel Hill) which was about 2 blocks up from a local cooperative organic grocery store called Weaver Street Market. It’s kind of like Santa Rosa’s Community Market except they sold meat, fish, had a cafe, and an expansive lawn out front in the center of town that functioned as the soul of the place.

In fact I wrote a whole post about what it was like to shop there for my biweekly groceries rather than the regional mega chain: grocery shopping project. Weaver Street was one of the hardest things to leave behind when I moved.

And in Austin, as Jackie will attest, I had access to H.E.B.’s phenomenal Central Market as well as the flagship Whole Foods (which is even bigger and better now). So I’ve had access in the past, I’m just really appreciating the quantity and diversity out here.

This is one of my favorite things about living in an urban area. We have five different grocery stores within walking distance, six if you count the farmer’s market, and 8 if you allow duplicates. I know it reflects our proximity to the university, but the density of “urban groceteries” in our neighborhood, while pleasant, makes us a little sheepish sometimes. But you can always get imported cheese.

It’s funny though, the thing people most seem to fret about the idea of living in the city (aka San Francisco) is the perceived lack of easy access to groceries.

Now maybe it’s just the fact that they’d envision not having a car in the city (and thus would need to walk) or maybe there’s actually a dearth of groceries in the city.

I’d be curious to see a similar map plotting out the grocery density in SF.

For future reference, someone else has come up with a Google Maps plugin for WordPress. Strangely enough works better in IE than FF. Requires an exec PHP plugin which I’d prefer to avoid.

just curious what you all know about G & G Grocery? Is it a good store? when I look it up online it gives me Clover… I’m confused- and since I live in Florida, I can’t stop in till I get out there! Thank you for you help

Shari, G&G Supermarket is ok, a lot of people love their fish and meat selection, but the location on West College seemed a little run down to me.

I found your grocery store page while surfing for independent grocery store owners in Sonoma County. I’m figuring one of them may want to be FIRST or SECOND to provide their grocery information VIA WEB TV … SoCô¿ôL?
http://www.socool.com/tv/current