Toni Hudson of Goods.

Retail Roundup

Bonne Vie

International Wine, Beer and Fine Cigars

Stroll down the brick hallway of Park Street Plaza’s newly refurbished space, and for a moment, you just may feel like you’ve been transported to a European alleyway. It’s only fitting that Bonne Vie, meaning good life, greets you at the corridor with warm wood floors, a Native American wood statue (a former Pillow Park Plaza icon), and racks of wine, champagne, beer, and cigars from France, Germany, Spain, Africa, New Zealand, and other countries worldwide. Specialty beers range from light picnic refreshers and 100 percent organic beers to deep Belgium beers, including Scaldis and Saison Dupont, which come in pints (750 ml) and smaller pack sizes ($3.59–$40). Frank and Debbie George, owners of Bonne Vie and the former Pillow Park Plaza, created the store as a natural evolution from their former furniture store offerings of leather club chairs and cigar humidors. The current selection of fine cigars from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Honduras, is stored in specially made temperature-controlled humidors made of cedar. Ranging from $2 to $20 each, popular brands include Arturo Fuente, Markers Mark, and Punch after dinner cigars. In addition to cigar accessories, the store sells pipes, pipe tobacco brands Balkan and Davidoff ($13.99), and cleaning accessories, as a result of increasing demand for old-fashioned pipes.

1419 Park St., Unit F, in the Park Street Plaza Building, 510-521-6227, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Wed.–Fri., 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Sat., 12 p.m.–5 p.m. Sun., www.bvspiritscigars.com.

Goods

New and Vintage Home Goods and Gifts

Forget touch screens, cables, and the latest technologies when you step inside Goods, an old-fashioned mercantile store carrying modern rustic goods. Almost all of the store’s items are made in the United States, and you’ll find an interesting assortment of home goods such as leather satchels, colorful Woolrich wool blankets ($130), letterpress prints ($24), and Oakland-based Juniper Ridge bath and body items ($10–$28) formulated with 100 percent real, plant-based fragrances. Owner Toni Hudson strives to create a friendly general store feeling from yesteryear by stocking Goods with unique items that have a story. Feast your eyes on a variety of antique mason jars ($12–$18), coffee syrup by Dave’s Coffee in mocha, Madagascar Vanilla, and decaf ($19) packaged in jars of vintage-looking industrial medicine bottles, and Liberte body spray tonics in fragrances such as Vintage Leather, Old Bourbon, Smoky Fig, and Tobacco 1812. Among the store’s goods, real antiques from the owner’s family dot the refurbished space, including cigar/cigarette lighters from the 1940s and ’50s ($25–$40 each), antique typewriters ($140), binoculars, and adding machines (price upon request).

2537 Santa Clara Ave., 510-745-1055, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Tue.–Sat., www.alamedagoods.com.

This article appears in the November 2013 issue of Alameda Magazine
Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to Alameda Magazine »