Keil's leaving Bay Park

The bad news is that after decades, Keil’s will be leaving its location on Clairemont Drive. It’ll be greatly missed. This has been my main go-to store for many staples and many specialties, and it had a great salad bar.

The good news, I guess, is that it’s being replaced by a Sprouts. I like Sprouts, although I tend to go just once a week to grab some of their terrific produce values. But Sprouts is a “healthfood and health supplements” store at its core.

I’m not into that, and there’s already a Sprouts on Genesee just north of Balboa that’s easy for me to reach when I want to go to a “commercial farmer’s market” / health food- type place. So this new one will be pretty much redundant in my case.

Actually, I don’t quite get it.

Change happens.

The closest mainstream grocery store for Bay Park has been Keil’s. Now the closest will be Von’s. Which isn’t all that bad. Just not the same, not a small, local, full-service grocery. And not as close.

Semi-related P.S.: The signs are up at Ranch 99 on Balboa, but it looks like it has about a month to go.

More relevant P.S.: Timescale is that Keil’s will close end of October, and Sprouts will open in late 2017.

It’s tough to run a grocery store with low % of profit, along with a huge retail space of 20-40k square feet…
So, the La Mesa store will be the only one?
I LOVE Sprouts and they have more corporate $$ but why is it taking so long to do the build outs?
A year seems fairly long when it already is an existing grocery store.

IMO, big box grocery stores are a dinosaur breed…
The ones that are kicking ass, are the non-union based ones, like Stater Bros.

I don’t like Sprouts.

This is very unfortunate.

I wonder what’ll happen to the Keil’s in San Carlos. It’s a really good store in a tough location

One of the reasons it’s going to take a while to build out the new Sprouts is that they’re going to expand the Keil’s building from 26K to 33K sq. ft., and a couple of other existing tenants in the shopping center will have to move before that can start. More details here.

The “big box” grocery stores have certainly been disappearing in the Bay Park / South Clairemont area. Not too many years ago there was Von’s, Ralph’s, and Albertsons all clustered around Balboa and Genesee. Now with Keil’s gone, the area will only have Von’s nearby.

I lived in Raleigh, NC for a number of years in the very early 70’s. One of the things I came to love, foodwise, was home-barbequed chicken or pork with a very special NC cooking sauce, Carolina Treet, now called the “original”. I wrote to them when I moved to SD if I could get it by mail order and it worked. They eventually had an order form. Now they’re online, of course. For over 40 years, Carolina Treet cooking sauce has been a staple in my pantry.

So what has this to do with this thread? Well, I love pork steaks. They’re also called pork shoulder steaks. They’re wonderful, and with Carolina Treet slathered on them after each turn during grilling, absolutely delicious.

Alas, though, my search is on for a new, nearby source of pork steaks. Keil’s has been my reliable source for these inexpensive but wonderfully-flavored cuts for decades, but they’re leaving Bay Park, dammit. I don’t see pork steaks at the local (Balboa/Genesee) Von’s; Sprouts has anemic-looking ones, and at a high price. Everybody has “country” ribs, of course, and they’re good, but not at all the same thing as steaks. Cut makes a difference.

I’ll look at the local Asian markets, but to give me a head start, does anyone know for sure a source for quality (read, fatty, rough-hewn, dark purple-colored) pork steaks in the Bay Park area?

Not Bay Park, but I think you’d have better luck at a Mexican market. Pancho Villa isn’t that far a drive

1 Like

Thanks, DD. I was going to check at Carnival and also Thuan Phat, too. Temporarily, I’m going to stock up and freeze some from Keils, I guess, but I can’t exactly get a lifetime supply that way!

Well, there’s always the trek out to San Carlos. As far as I know, that Keil’s is remaining put. I feel your pain, their meat department has always been very good and when they run specials, it’s time to stock up.

2 Likes

I know it is not really closeby but I never had problems asking WholeFoods LJ or Tip Top Meats to order special things.

Hmmmm…that’s a good idea and now I’m wondering if Cook Pigs Ranch (their outpost off of CMB) is still open. They might accept an order like that.

Have you tried Sepulveda Meats?

Also you might look at the various Seafood City stores; many Filipinos use pork steak when making bistek tagalog (instead of beef).

1 Like

Thanks, ipse. No. I’ll look into these suggestions, too.

Maybe something good will come out of this.

BTW, when you say pork steak I presume you mean a cut from the shoulder? Or, in other words a Boston butt?

Yes.

Never heard the term “Boston butt” though.

Honkman?

[smirk]

2 Likes

Good one :+1:

2 Likes

Well, I’ve stocked up and frozen several of Keil’s pork steaks. Now to stock up on some of their wonderful house-made sausages.

I see that Sprouts has house-made sausages, too. Therein may be a glimmer of hope.

1 Like

T & H prime meats in San Marcos has house made sausages and lots of great products. Don’t know about your pork steaks though.

I stopped in at Carnival today (the one in Southeast Clairemont) and voila, they have pork steaks. Nice looking ones, too, although those they had out were cut half as thick (1/4 inch) as I’m accustomed to getting from Keil’s (about 1/2 inch).