The Keil’s salad bar had all that and more…and it was only $4.99 a pound. Best deal in town
I drove through the “Keil’s” shopping center in Bay Park today, and it seemed clear that Sprouts is wasting no time. The former Keil’s store has been totally denuded inside and its outside signage removed. At this stage, the building is an empty void except for pillars and wiring dangling down. The jewelry store adjacent was similarly cleaned out and devoid of fixtures. The new Sprouts is supposed to subsume both the Keil’s and jewelry store spaces, plus that of one other shop that I can’t recall. It’s supposed to open next year in the fall, which is probably the next time I’ll post to this thread.
Stopped by the Ralph’s in Hazard Center on the way home last night. They had what looked like pork shoulder steaks on sale even though they weren’t labeled as such. It’s Saturday, less traffic, go check it out. I hate that parking lot, but be brave…
Also picked up some cheese remnants (all very small pieces) for under $5…good cheese, good deal
Thanks for the tip, DD. I go to that Ralph’s periodically because they have some things that I like that I can’t find in other stores. I have occasion to drive past it from time to time, and will definitely take a look at their meat section sometime when I’m in the area. Before Keil’s closed, though, I bought four of their pork steaks and froze them. Pork steaks seem to keep well in the freezer, so those will probably last for at least three months. When I run out I’ll go over to Ralphs and check it out.
I’m going to editorialize a bit. Just a few years ago, the Bay Park / Southwest Clairemont area had four “real” grocery stores: Keil’s, Von’s, Ralph’s, and Albertson’s. Ralph’s closed so that Home Depot could expand. Albertson’s was bought by the flash-in-the-pan Haggen, and, as I understand it, Keil’s gave up after years of negotiating for a new lease. Now we’re down to exactly one real store! There is no choice. It’s either Von’s or drive all the way to Ralph’s in Mission Valley, which takes 15 minutes from where I live, and once getting there you might have to jockey sometimes for parking. What a degradation of our local character and the value of living here this is. Von’s, which has too few checkout lanes for the new swarm of customers, is overwhelmed now, so it seems from the lines, and their parking lot is more crowded than before. How could we have gone from four stores in the area to one? Dammit, I miss Keil’s. In my dreams they would re-open in the vacant lot at Clairemont Blvd. and Morena.
That really stinks. You have my sympathy.
I, on the other hand, have Ralph’s, Vons, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Harvest Ranch, Stater Brothers, and Jimbo’s within a couple of miles of my home. Within 3 miles, I also have Lazy Acres and Whole Foods. Decisions, decisions.
I am still waiting for a Keil’s to open near me, as obviously there ain’t much competition out here.
Is that the sequence of events? I thought that Ralph’s decided to close that store based on numbers (they phased out the smaller, neighborhood size stores), and Home Depot simply took advantage of the open space.
Though they don’t have the delis, bakeries, etc., both Target and Walmart (just down the street) have pretty large grocery sections. They may not be the usual choice for you, me, and others here, but a lot of people get most to all of their groceries at those places.
B…is that really true???
I’m so conditioned to my own grocery buying routine that I don’t even consider Target or Walmart, so I don’t really know how many people use that option. If true, WOW…I had no idea 
Yes, that is true.
As I said, I am in no way promoting this as an option (we can go into a long discussion about big box stores invading the grocery market), but you need to check out at least one of those stores (I think Target would be the less painful option), see what they have and what their prices are, and draw your own conclusion.
That’s the way I heard it, RBH. But it was word of mouth, so you could be right. What I heard was that Home Depot had wanted to expand there for a long time, and when Ralph’s lease came up for renewal, they did a land grab, so to speak. I myself don’t know much about these things, so anything is possible I suppose. It seemed to me that Ralphs was doing good business at that loaction; Albertson’s, not so much.
I can believe what you heard - it’s all about the all-mighty buck, and I forgot that leases are often involved and there is a third party that can be bought off. At that time, Ralph’s was closing some of its smaller, neighborhood sized stores (e.g. the one on Pomerado just north of Twin Peaks / Espola), and figured that’s what they did on Balboa, too, but it was just my supposition.
I may be a rare bird, but I liked that Albertson’s when they opened it (as I did the one off Camino Del Sur). Within a few years it was already starting to scummy up, but at the time it seemed nice enough. It’s too bad that they couldn’t have done a swap, with Ralph’s occupying the new Albertson’s store, but clearly they didn’t think it was worth buying when Hagen imploded.
I’m still trying to figure out just what the hell Hagen was thinking…
They weren’t, thinking that is. I think they were set up by Albertson’s. But shame on them for not doing enough of their own market research and overly relying on what Albertson’s told them to be true of the SoCal market.
As a follow-up, after half a year I finally depleted my stash of pork steaks that I’d bought at the Keil’s in Bay Park just before they closed. So off I went to Ralph’s in Mission Valley to see if they had any, but no luck. Maybe it’s catch as catch can there? The good news is (pork-steak-wise) that the butcher at the Genesee Sprouts location said that they always have them on the shelf. Excellent! (But not today, because their saw was broken.) Which means that I should be able to get them at the new Sprouts when it’s finished being built out. Anyway, thanks again for the tip. It was worth checking since I was going to the Mission Valley area anyway.
At Tip Top Meats you can call and they prepare different cuts or they order stuff they don’t have in-house, e.g. our way to get beef cheeks etc
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I am pretty sure I’ve seen Dr. Chow grouse about driving up to the Ralph’s in La Jolla; I doubt you can get him to drive up to Carlsbad and back down in the summer.
Now that’s a good question.
I tried Siesel’s, long ago. They don’t have pork steaks.
And they couldn’t cut them for you?!?!???
They’re a full service butcher shop. Iowa Meat Farms will do special cuts if I ask. Same owner, why would the policies be different???
Wait, are you saying Siesel’s doesn’t carry pork, or that they wouldn’t cut pork steaks for you?
I know the former is not true, the latter I would be shocked if it was.