‘Where Exceptional Foods and Relationships Are Deeply Rooted’

A Look at the Pacific Palisades Iteration of Vintage Grocers

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

A hot bar. Ready-to-go meals. Sushi and poke. Wine. Flowers. Fresh produce. A butcher and fishmonger. These are just a few of the things that Vintage Grocers will offer the community when it opens its doors in Caruso’s Palisades Village on Sept. 22.

Vintage Grocers, the creation of Paige Laurie, first opened its Malibu doors in 2014.

“Vintage Grocers was born from the desire to provide our neighbors with carefully sourced meats, produce and foods—to fuel the healthier lifestyle of Malibu,” Laurie explained to the Palisadian-Post.

Laurie, a resident of Los Angeles for the past two decades, comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and market developers.

“I was involved in my parents’ businesses from an early age, so I was able to learn from them firsthand,” Laurie shared. “This experience, along with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, has been the basis for my own business success.”

Vintage expanded to The Promenade at Westlake—another one of Caruso’s developments—in 2016, taking over a space previously occupied by Bristol Farms.

The Pacific Palisades location will be the store’s third location.

“So many of our seasonal Malibu guests have their full-time homes in the Palisades and Brentwood areas,” Laurie said. “We have been servicing those areas with in-home deliveries and catered events for years—so when the opportunity to open a store in the Village was presented to us, it made perfect sense.”

Laurie opened the first Vintage shop in Malibu with the idea of “sophisticated, yet approachable grocery shopping that embraces all food beliefs while celebrating local purveyors and inspiring culinary exploration.”

Enter the concierge staff: Unique to the Pacific Palisades store will be a concierge team.

“These are food experts,” Laurie explained, “there to assist with special orders, gift baskets and catering.”

In a behind-the-scenes tour, the Post met Vintage Marketing Director Melissa Darpino, who explained a bit about how the concierge staff can help the community. Vintage Grocers is set up to inspire shoppers to test their culinary skills, placing seasonal ingredients near each other to encourage new recipe ideas.

“We’re here to be the cheerleaders of the food,” Darpino shared during the tour.

Items will rotate, and Darpino and her staff will be present to send customers in the right direction for their dream meals—mixing and matching homemade with ready-to-go selections. There will also be chef demonstrations.

Handling the ready-to-go side—and much, much more—will be Culinary Director Rémi Lauvand.

Born and raised in southwest France, Lauvand’s resume includes a role at Gerard Pangaud’s two-Michelin-star rated restaurant in Paris, sous chef at New York’s La Grenouille and Le Cirque, and executive chef at Montrachet, where he earned a nomination for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurant award.

During the tour, Darpino explained the general layout of the store. Customers who enter from Sunset Boulevard will be greeted by stands filled with fresh produce, as well as a coffee/juice bar, featuring Groundworks Coffee.

After a few steps will be the concierge desk. Past the desk will be the ready-to-go section, which includes everything from cheese and charcuterie to build-your-own bowls, priced at $9.

Small signs throughout the store will help direct customers, but the layout is missing big bulky signage. This detail reflects the fact that Vintage is designed to be a small-town shop—someone in a small-town visiting their local store would know where each department is located.

Laurie, Darpino, Lauvand and the Vintage team are working to hone in on creating something hyper-local for the community, working closely with the same vendors that are present at local farmers markets and companies like Santa Monica Seafood.

“Vintage Grocers is more than a great grocery store—we are a market that supports the active, healthy lifestyle in Southern California,” Laurie shared. “We believe in the communities in which we are rooted, and that we can all grow together.”