DotDotDash: Market-Makes-Community Edition

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — We take a look at the social event of the year and it’s not the Temporary Beckham Contemporary or Best-of-Bash. We’re talkin’ Ralphs, and a final thought on Joel Bloom.

THE ANGELS SANG AS RALPHS OPENED and the honeymoon is still on with lofties and locals visiting several times over. This deputy to Sheriff blogdowntown took his gun-with-one-bullet and did a DASH public transportation test. It started at a small store that already built a community, Blooms General Store next to the A/DASH stop.

COVER ME, I’M GOING IN: 2:30pm may be the best time to lunch at Ralphs’ massive service deli, with the choice of salad bar, sushi bar, sandwich bar––or later in the afternoon a bar-bar. A staffer said the goal is to beat the crunch knowing that there’s about a ten-minute window for each luncher.

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‘I FEEL SO CIVILIZED’ DEPARTMENT since this Ralphs has wine tasting. ..— More Civilized: Heard over the intercom “Main Lobster. Cooked while you wait.” ..— TOO Civilized: At the deli, a young couple waiting for an order say they love the new market “but wish they delivered.” “Where do you live?” asked the counter man. The couple reply, “Upstairs.”

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SMALL TOWN: Using the DASH means you shop-n-schlepp after 6:30. Still, it’s enough to make this massive grocery store match the hype that Downtown will be a community..— It opened on a weekend that could be considered an urban transition, from a village that grew around an Arts District General Store ..— A store, BTW, that’s the same size as Downtown developers’ new vision of square footage..— Talk about making downtown a little bit smaller, is 250 square feet really livable for the demographic they prefer?

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As a community builder, Ralphs has a tough act to follow.

Top: Perry peeking in package. Bottom: A card from beyond.