There's Culture In Them Thar Hills!

Altadena's reputation as an anomaly within the environs of Los Angeles County is a subject given much talk.  Mostly, that talk emanates from outside it - points west, east, and south of us. Those who live inside Altadena, though, tend to ignore the talk and go about their business, not really caring who thinks what about whom.  Life goes on as it always does in Altadena, that is, until someone or something pops up to rock our boat a little.  When that happens, people notice.  Not just people from the outside, although they certainly have an opinion.  People in our town are taking notice and getting involved in their community once again, and we think that's great!

Rain, Wine and Trouble In Altadena

April showers may bring May flowers, but they also brought disappointment last Friday night, as the torrential downpour forecast for that day resulted in the cancellation of Altadena's first Food Truck Friday of the season.  Not to worry, though, as the trucks will be back next month, and we've got our monthly wine pairing event scheduled for this Saturday.  Not just a wine pairing - although Mike Holland and Anne Bannon of OddBallGrape.com sure make them enjoyable - but a reception for local artist Fei Liu, too!  Be sure to mark your calendar so you won't miss this fun evening of great wine, food and art!

Starting at 4:00 pm, we'll be tasting some fine Italian white wines with goodies prepared by local restaurant Amy's Patio Cafe.  Anne and Mike will run down the basics and the not-so-basics on the varietals we'll be trying, while we all indulge in Caprese skewers and stuffed mushrooms caps.  Stay for the reception for Fei and admire her whimsically beautiful creations - we'll even pour some Italian bubbly for the occasion.  The store will be staying open until 7:30 pm Saturday night so this will be an easy starter to your weekend festivities....don't miss it!

In other news, there's been some scary stuff happening in Altadena during the past few days.  Gun shots, robberies and now a burning body found on the sidewalk of Windsor Drive - what are we all to think?  Happening at a time when Altadena is coming together to discuss major quality of life issues, I'm hoping that these incidents bring us closer together as a community.  Know that our hearts go out to all of our friends who live in the neighborhood, whose serenity was so harshly impacted.  Our prayers go out to the unnamed man whose life was so horribly cut short, and to his family, whomever they are.  Things like that shouldn't happen anywhere, let alone in Altadena - it's not what we're about and it's not what we want to be known for.  Let's all work toward making our town safe and prosperous for all by attending the Altadena Visioning Meetings, the next of which is on Wednesday, April 25th at Loma Alta Park's gymnasium.

Enjoy your week, friends, and we'll talk again in two weeks (we're taking an end of tax week no blogging holiday)!

Lori and Scott

Affinity for Fall

Living in Southern California, some think, deprives you of the change of seasons so obvious in other, colder, states.  Not so, I think.  There's always signs of the passing of the months, subtle as they may be.  Autumn has always been crowned with colorful leaves falling from our liquid amber tree in the front yard and signals the start of the holiday season for me.

When I was a child, I used to check on the leaves of this tree as I would check a hour glass, waiting for that first yellow leaf to appear on the lawn.  Maybe it would happen in late August or early September.  Most always, though, it would seem to take forever for the leaves to change.  All the other trees up and down the block had pretty red and gold leaves hanging or floating down to their respective lawns - why didn't ours have any yet?

My mom would always say that because it was the biggest tree, and maybe one of the oldest, it took longer to turn.  I didn't understand, some of those other trees looked pretty darn close in size to ours, and I was impatient.  The sooner the leaves turned, the sooner Halloween would arrive - and I loved Halloween.

Halloween kicks off the beginning of the party season for most, but we started a little early here at WFS.  Somehow, our Fancy Food Truck Fridays, which is held every 2nd Friday of the month, just happened to fall the very day before the 3rd Saturday of the month and that's when we have our wine pairing events.  Even better, this month we planned to include a poetry reading with the wine tastings.  It turned out to be one fantastically busy, fantabulously fun weekend and we enjoyed every minute of it!

The food truck event Friday evening went off with nary a hitch, after having received the needed permit from L.A, County on Monday.  They cut it pretty close, but we still had a good sized crowd enjoying the offerings of the different trucks.  I ordered from Baby's Badass Burgers this time around and I must say that their food is mighty delicious!  It was wonderful to have our new event sponsor, Danny's Farm, back in Altadena, if only for one night a month.  The animals were a hit with the younger crowd, but of course the goats have a big following in our town!  Next month's Fancy Food Truck Friday will be on November 11th.

On Saturday, Linda Dove and Judith Terzi, local poets both, joined OddBallGrape.com's Anne Bannon and Michael Holland for an evening devoted to wine and poetry.....oh, and food!  Wonderfully tasty treats were provided to us by Lauren of Amy's Patio Cafe and I'm kicking myself in the pants for not getting pictures of them!  Lovely prosciutto-wrapped asparagus spears, the asparagus perfectly al dente and prosciutto lean and flavorful.  Mushroom caps filled with cream cheese and sun-dried tomatoes made savory bites and the fresh mozzarella, grape tomato and basil kebabs were unbelievably good, but it was the decadent brownies and the filo cups filled with a sweet blueberry compote that completely stole the show!

This evening Scott and I are taking it easy.  Well, better make that he's taking it easy, I'm writing a blog post.  Dinner's waiting, so enjoy your week ahead and we'll talk again next week....

Lori & Scott

Dollars For Scholars!*

WFS Grand Re-Opening Notice In Pasadena Star News, Sept. 27, 2008

This little blurb made it into the Pasadena Star News back in September of 2008, and was about the only mention of our "new" store ever in print when ownership changed.  Although it's hard to make out, the bottom of the paragraph shows that we dedicated a portion of the day's proceeds to The Quality Of Life Center, of which the Bright Future Scholar program is a part of.  This was the start of our wonderful relationship with the visionary head of the Center, Dr. Sandra Thomas, and her entire staff.

As I mentioned on our store's Facebook page this morning, Scott and I were honored to attend the graduation ceremony of the Bright Future Scholars, held this afternoon at the Pasadena Convention Center.  I say honored, because this is such an incredible program for high achieving school kids who would otherwise be unable to take advantage of such opportunities.  In academic achievement, the Bright Futures Scholars Support Program, when compared to others with similar demographics, ranks at the top state-wide.  100% of the seniors enrolled in the program go on to enroll in college.  Today's graduating seniors are going to a variety of top colleges, including Harvard, Columbia, USC, UCLA and UC Santa Cruz  - and we couldn't be prouder of them!

It costs nothing but high grades to become part of the Bright Future Scholars.  It does cost quite a bit, however, to mentor those kids and take them on the yearly retreat to Washington, D.C., or to Sacremento, CA.  It costs a lot to make sure there are people from the Center ready to help whomever needs it, whenever they need it.  It costs the students themselves, and their families who have little to spare, a tidy sum to attend college and to provide for living and school expenses as well.  When the question of who would like to pledge a scholarship for a Bright Future Scholar graduate in 2012, Scott and I had to step up!

We pledged not just one $500.00 scholarship - we pledged two!  One scholarship will be from Webster's of Altadena, in honor of the Webster family's long tradition of service to the Altadena community.  The other will be in honor of my grandfather, Dr. Robert I. Elliott, who was Superintendent of Schools, State of Nebraska, Broken Bow County and was later president of Chadron State College for 40 years.  Chadron State College is celebrating their 100 year anniversary this year. 

As you can see by my family's history, education is important to us.  It's even more important that those who are doing well in school be able to go on, despite their economical or situational challenges.  You know I've been saying that our businesses should all be working together toward a healthy community, and making sure that our non-profits stay viable is a top priority.  No longer can we think of ourselves only - I advocate for a more holistic approach.  That's why we're putting our money where our mouth is.  Now, we've got to get busy and make enough so that we can honor (there's that word again!) our commitment.

In other news, this next Saturday is our monthly wine pairing event with OddBallGrape.com.  This time it's "Cabs For Dads And Grads" and we'll highlight different combinations of Cabernet Sauvingon with grilled meat (or grilled vegetable) sliders.  Amy's Patio Cafe will be providing the sliders and there will be much merriment as we learn which wine tastes best with what!  Mark your calendars now - the fun starts at 4:00 pm and lasts until 7:00 pm - a whole hour later than we normally close.  If you haven't been to one of our wine tastings, you're really missing out - Anne Bannon and Mike Holland of OddBallGrape.com are lively, funny and extremely knowledgeable about the vino!

Have a fabulous week ahead, my friends!

*We have collection jars in our store, at each register, for customers to drop their change into, to benefit The Quality Of Life Center.  Please make it a point to drop yours in next time you're at the store - we appreciate it!

A Full Plate

One of these days I'll report to you that we had a quiet week. This is not that day, however. Another week has whizzed by so fast, with so much happening, I can say with all honesty that I'm tuckered out!

Valentines Day was fabulous and I thank you all for that. The giant red hearts and the accompanying pink, frilly props have been packed away, waiting to make an appearance next year. Next to come are Spring and Easter displays highlighting some of our newest products! I'm very pleased by our renewed commitment to invest in more sustainable merchandise and we're getting in some very exciting things that I think you'll adore. One of these fabulous new lines just arrived and we've enjoyed setting up these sketch pads fashioned out of vintage record album covers. Old Motown and R & B favorites such as The Commodores, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Michael Jackson....you get the idea. What a wonderful use for these old record covers, and the drawing (or journaling) paper is bright white and acid free!

Meredith Miller, one-half of the new owners of Webster's Community Pharmacy, and I had lunch the other day with Altadenan and photographer/videographer Deb Halberstadt at the wonderful Amy's Patio Cafe. We talked about our Fancy Food Truck Fridays and the possibility of filming the event as a live stream, which I think would be awesome! We're still in the early stages of planning, so we'll keep you informed of our progress. This next Fancy Food Truck Friday, on March 11th, will be so much fun, I can hardly wait! More trucks, more tables & chairs, and even music....it all spells one heck of a good time!

There was a great turn-out for the Altadena Urban Farmers Market today. Molly Tierney and I drove over for a stroll-through and I'm sure glad we did. Lots of yummy goodies being sold and I was finally able to connect with Earl, of Earl's Gone Wild Barbeque Sauce fame. We'll now be carrying his tasty sauce and other products that he's soon to come out with. We tasted his Jalapeno Pepper Jelly and loved it....it'll be ready for the market soon, and when it is, you can be sure WFS will be carrying it. Earl's barbeque sauce is being offered at the low price of $7.99....come in and get a bottle before it's gone!

Dinner is past done, my friends, so must run. Have a great week and we hope to see you in the store sometime soon!

Lori & Scott

A Socially Acceptable Third Anniversary

Fourth quarter started off with a bang for Webster's Fine Stationers this week! Our first community-oriented Social Media Meet & Greet - The Networking Event was held Friday, October 1st. It brought out upwards of 50 curious locals who were eager to learn exactly what sites like Facebook, Blogger and LinkedIn could offer them and their businesses.

The lucky attendees were given advice by the some of the best social media-savvy speakers around. Hilary Cable of Business.com gave a fascinating overview of Facebook. Her advice and tips were spot on and even helped answer some questions I had about the subject. Petrea Burchard, who authors the Pasadena Daily Photo blog, addressed blogging and how it can help reinforce your brand when used in conjunction with your business. Loved her view of blogging for your business as a type of giving and networking beyond your own doors! Deb Halberstadt, of Half City Productions, gave her insight into using LinkedIn as a professional platform and resume. Providing infinite possibilities, LinkedIn is a site where you can network online with other business professionals and is another tool being used for brand reinforcement.

Tying all these different avenues of social media together was the fabulous Anton Anderson of Productivity Consulting, Inc. Anton's knowledge coupled with his excellent moderation skills made him easy to listen to and learn from. After the learning session was over, our favorite wine experts, Anne L. Bannon and Michael Holland of OddBallGrape.com hosted a wine-tasting with wines provided by Webster's Liquor's well-appointed wine cellar. We love having wine-tastings with Anne and Michael....you actually learn a lot while you're laughing at their witty delivery of wine factoids and fallacies.

Our banquet table was groaning at all the food from our local eateries, as well! Thanks go out to the participating restaurants - Amy's Patio Cafe, El Patron Mexican Food and Pinocchio's Pizza for their delicious Fall Tailgating party-themed foods. We had warm grilled veggie & cheese sandwiches, cesar salad and zucchini bread from Amy's; El Patron provided tasty chicken nachos with guacamole and hot sauces; and the vegetable pizza from Pinocchio's was wonderful!

What made this evening so special, to me, was that this event was held on our third anniversary. Three years from October 1st, 2007, as an entity separate from Webster's Pharmacy, and I believe we have finally secured our place in the Altadena landscape. I've often referred to our shop as a store in transition. No longer undefined, we have staked our claim. Our store and our community - we're working toward keeping both strong and viable!

Have a wonderful week, my friends! I've heard it's supposed to be cooler and maybe rainy....how's that for a nice change?

Lori & Scott

Ask Not What Your Community Can Do For You.....

Forgive me for using a variation of President John F. Kennedy's famous inauguration speech.  I thought it appropriate that we substitute the word "community" for "country" for they are eventually the same ideal.  Broken down to the grassroots level, what you do for your community today strengthens your country tomorrow.

This is also a question that Scott and I asked ourselves before taking over ownership of Webster's stationery department.  Weighing the pros and cons of buying a store that wasn't really a store, one that was already in financial trouble, against the potential good we felt we could do in our community.  We took this on not because we thought we were going to make a ton of money in the endeavor, but because our family and community needed us to do it.  In whatever permeation Webster's is in now, at least we're still here. 

If  I had a dime for every time I've heard customer's say, "what would we do without Webster's?", I'd be able to buy lunch at Amy's Patio Cafe for 10 of our customers!  We're doing our part to ensure that Webster's remains in the community, not only as just a part of our historic scenery but a contributing member of Altadena's community.  That's why Scott and I , along with Ben McGinty, Molly Tierney, Steve Salinas, Lance Anderson and Jeff Kline formed the Altadena Arts Coalition.  That's why I'm sitting on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and it's also why Webster's Fine Stationers supports our local non-profit organizations.

We've also been very active online and love helping promote our community member's businesses and other worthy causes.  We've also enjoyed getting to know more of Altadena's residents as well, through our Facebook page and other venues, as well.  We envision a time when all the businesses in our Upper North Lake neighborhood work together for the benefit of all and we're working toward that end.  Until then, however, it's my pleasure to let you know (if you don't already) that Amy's Patio Cafe will be open on Saturday and Sunday nights for dinner during the summer.  Lauren will also be assembling box dinners for your enjoyment at the Sheriff's Support Group's Summer Concert Series, commencing soon.  Find out more information on her Facebook page and become a fan!

Speaking of working together, save the date of Saturday, June 26th, when Webster's Liquor and Webster's Fine Stationers will be holding a collaborative event you won't want to miss!  This fun and informative mini-seminar on pairing wines with popular barbeque party foods will feature local wine experts Anne Bannon and Michael Holland, just in time for the spate of 4th of July parties on the horizon.  The seminar is free but space is limited....when you receive your invitation be sure to respond quickly!  More information will be forthcoming next week.

This wraps up quite a week of excitement!  Last week we had a surprise visit from Tom Hanks, and our friend, Karen Klein, author of the blog Financially inKleined and reporter for various newspaper & magazines, wrote this article that appeared in BusinessWeek.  We love that the shop local message is being carried out here in the San Gabriel Valley!  Just remember, my friends, when you spend a dollar at an independent retailer, 70 to 80 cents remain to work within your community.  That's opposed to only 20 to 40 cents on the dollar if the same purchase was made at a corporate-owned big box or chain store.  Shop local and you'll find that stimulating the local economy has never been so rewarding!

Until next week,

Lori & Scott

The Once and Future Store

With apologies to T.H. White, I think the title is quite apropos for what we'll be talking about this week. There's a definite parallel between the Camelot of legend and the community of Altadena and Webster's.

Once vibrant, Webster's exemplified the model of the ideal community store. Offering a variety of unique merchandise, Webster's fulfilled the area's wants and needs and became the ad hoc town center. We involved ourselves in the community and the community repaid us handsomely by patronizing the store - truly a win/win situation for everyone!

Reading through some old town newspapers today, it's evident that Altadena had a thriving business district on North Lake Avenue. Those were prosperous times. Times when you kept your business dollars local. The neighborhood store, the local market, the bakery down the street - all contributed to your well being, as you contributed to theirs. Looking at it as a circle, everyone was contributing together to keep their community economically viable.

As time is wont to do, it passes and leaves great change in its wake. Economics, demographics, shopping habits and tastes have changed drastically since these photos were taken. We've seen the rise of corporate businesses and their bid to take over the world. We've seen its effects on our community. We watch as independently owned businesses struggle for viability and we've watched as some succumb, withering away into memory.

Fortunately, time is a circle. We're now seeing the resurgence of people all across the country wanting to preserve their neighborhoods' individuality. Witness what's happening here in Altadena - the birth of our own Altadena/Pasadena food co-op, the success of the Coffee Gallery Backstage, the Gallery At The End Of The World, Altadena Junction, Amy's Patio Cafe and Bulgarini Gelato. We've seen the enormous popularity of Altadenablog, proving yet again that Altadena wants to be a community connected.

We all have our place in this town and our town is poised on the brink of a phenomenon. As resistant to change as Altadena is, we've taken steps toward a paradigm change - can we swing the pendulum back to prosperity? Scott and I think we can.

Working together, people can move mountains. That's what we're counting on, because we've got great plans ahead. All we need is your support - your desire to direct a positive impact on your community. You can start by directing your dollars locally. It doesn't matter which independently-owned business, just make sure your money stays in the community, where it can do the most good.

We know times are tough right now. What we all need to do, though, is rethink our definition of value. Value is not always the lowest price. Value is what you get for your dollar, like excellent service, quality products and the satisfaction of knowing that what goes out of your pocket and into your community can really help move mountains.

Stay with us as we delve further into our plans for the future, support us as we grow toward it....and have a fabulous week!