Just in from Lisa…
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Monday February 4, 2013
Dear Friends,
The time has come for Fresh to move from the Skyhawk Village Marketplace.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the business relentlessly without ever doubting. You all have stuck in there and I appreciate the good memories I will take with me.
We are negotiating a new location and will close our doors for business tonight. The new facility has all the equipment and accoutrements we need so we will be able to sell most of the equipment that we brought here. Tomorrow Tuesday Feb 5th we will be Closed all day to prepare for the moving sale. There will be no Tuesday night take out specials.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Feb. 6-8th from noon to six o’clock, all items will be for sale and marked down 25 – 50%. We are planning to sell everything from food to equipment and décor.
We hope that you can come by to take advantage of this sale.
Thank you sincerely,
Lisa Hemenway
PS We will continue to do catering out of the Skyhawk Village Marketplace until the move is final.
Can they put a Starbucks in there already! Geesh.
Last Fathers day the service was horrible. When I complained, Lisa came to the table and offered a defensive and lame excuse about being short staffed and a catering event the night before. I will not miss Fresh
I will miss the sushi !! I hope chef Uchida keeps working in the area. Best fish-Best price,ever!
I have not bee to Fresh as many times as I would have liked. I have had several Birthday lunches there with friends and breakfasts. Everything was so delicious and served by kind servers.
I met Lisa whwn she was at her Montgomery Resturant and Deli. She has always been kind and friendly.
May she find the perfect new location.
Cheers to the Fresh crew and to Lisa Hemingway, one of the hardest working people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. It was a bold stroke and maybe too cosmopolitan for this small town, but it took vision and tremendous effort, something that just about every critic here completely lacks. Best wishes for the new locale and onward into the future.
Cheers to the Fresh crew and to Lisa Hemingway, one of the hardest working people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. It was a bold stroke and maybe too cosmopolitan for this small town, but it took vision and tremendous effort, something that just about every critic here completely lacks. Best wishes for the new locale and onward into the future.
Laying off your staff with zero notice is uncalled for. You knew you were closing but you let your staff find out by reading about it in the paper? Tisk Tisk, very low class, something a big chain might do.
Laying off your staff with zero notice is uncalled for. You knew you were closing but you let your staff find out by reading about it in the paper? Tisk Tisk, very low class, something a big chain might do.
The problem wasn’t her attitude, her location, or her high rents. The problem was two-fold. First, the design of the place, while visually interesting, required a huge number of staff to run efficiently. They had a pizza oven area, bakery area, kitchen area, coffee area, bar area, and grocery area, all needing dedicating staff. An efficient restaurant incorporates these work areas together so as not to need to staff separately for each. Secondly, the service was inconsistent at best, as was the food. I had great meals there, and horrible ones. I had great service there, and horrible service. Just sort of depended on the assistant manager for the day. Not to kick Lisa while she’s down, but if you own a business, you should plan on being there rather than hiring others to do your work for you. That is all.
Lisa Hemenway is one of the truly great local chefs we are fortunate to have here in Sonoma
County. I am sorry that Fresh did not work out. Every time I was there it was very busy.
I wish her well in her new location.
Lisa has brought classy food to this county for years! I remember her 80’s diner on 4th in railroad square. She brought California Cuisine to the attention of many. Before that, Hemenway and Fleisners. Years ago! Talent like hers was only brought out through hard work. But I guess to coin a phrase, “haters gotta hate”. Funny… if you didn’t appreciate her, get out of my way, I’ll buy it.
I remember when Lisa did this at Montgomery village many years ago. She had a good but expensive deli then. Lisa has her style and it may not be in vogue right now.
The problem wasn’t her attitude, her location, or her high rents. The problem was two-fold. First, the design of the place, while visually interesting, required a huge number of staff to run efficiently. They had a pizza oven area, bakery area, kitchen area, coffee area, bar area, and grocery area, all needing dedicating staff. An efficient restaurant incorporates these work areas together so as not to need to staff separately for each. Secondly, the service was inconsistent at best, as was the food. I had great meals there, and horrible ones. I had great service there, and horrible service. Just sort of depended on the assistant manager for the day. Not to kick Lisa while she’s down, but if you own a business, you should plan on being there rather than hiring others to do your work for you. That is all.
Lisa Hemenway is one of the truly great local chefs we are fortunate to have here in Sonoma
County. I am sorry that Fresh did not work out. Every time I was there it was very busy.
I wish her well in her new location.
Lisa has brought classy food to this county for years! I remember her 80’s diner on 4th in railroad square. She brought California Cuisine to the attention of many. Before that, Hemenway and Fleisners. Years ago! Talent like hers was only brought out through hard work. But I guess to coin a phrase, “haters gotta hate”. Funny… if you didn’t appreciate her, get out of my way, I’ll buy it.
I remember when Lisa did this at Montgomery village many years ago. She had a good but expensive deli then. Lisa has her style and it may not be in vogue right now.
Best Ruben in the State!!
I loved that sandwich, Bob, even though it probably sent my cholesterol off the charts… but it wasn’t really a Ruben, … no where near the classic.
Lisa seemed very humble to me. I don’t live in Santa Rosa anymore but I used to live in St Francis Acres prior to this commercial development. When I travel to SR, I often stop in there for a deli style lunch. Fantastic food. Lots of takeout. If I still lived near that neighborhood, I would be protesting their move!
I would like to know where they are moving. Wish it was in my neighborhood.
Best Ruben in the State!!
Lisa seemed very humble to me. I don’t live in Santa Rosa anymore but I used to live in St Francis Acres prior to this commercial development. When I travel to SR, I often stop in there for a deli style lunch. Fantastic food. Lots of takeout. If I still lived near that neighborhood, I would be protesting their move!
I would like to know where they are moving. Wish it was in my neighborhood.
I thought that Fresh was an innovative idea and provided many wonderful food, wine and gift products- so many choices. Yes, quality food does cost more and Lisa always had a discerning eye for quality and variety. I live far from Fresh so was not a frequent shopper there, but on my way out that way always considered it a treat to stop there and shop. Fresh will be missed and Lisa will no doubt create another innovative place.
They should open a Trader Joe’s there.
Trader Joe’s will be located on the corner of Calistoga Rd and Hwy 12, where Pricket’s Nursery is currently located.
I doubt that. Even if there were enough room for parking, it would be impossible to get in & out.
The Pricket’s property is about the same size as the whole Safeway shopping center across the street, over 3 acres.
What they need in that space is a market like Lads that used to be on Montgomery Drive. Good family small grocery store with a quality butcher.
A great butcher would be really nice.
i will miss the muffin – they have the best muffin.
Marc, I hear you, and I also live in the neighborhood, but I disagree. There are lots of folks in Skyhawk and St Francis estates with more than enough money to afford something more upscale than Safeway. Oliver’s is more expensive than Safeway by far, and it’s always jammed. I’m willing to pay more to get better products there, especially, proteins, vegetables, and deli items, and I see plenty of folks there who live closer to Lisa’s. While we didn’t go to Lisa’s very often, and I thought the restaurant/market concept was flawed, we did go to Skyhawk market all the time, especially for takeout, but also for whatever we needed between major shopping trips. I doubt I’ll ever understand why that place didn’t work. Staff, service, and product were all excellent, but the locals never bought into it. I’m guessing that they didn’t start with enough capital to promote themselves and to let business develop and that the rent was insane.
Money for purchases isn’t the issue – it’s the selection for the money which I was referring to aside from reasonable pricing. That one may have the money to spend doesn’t mean one as a smart consumer should when there are more options nearby, lower in price and higher in quality anyway. With a largely family populated area, merchants cannot expect to make it long term if the only types of items they are willing to vendor are high end items which sell better at Oliver’s in the first place, crowds or no. I too miss the old Skyhawk market, but you gotta admit they also had many overpriced items and a limited amount of more “regular” produce, sundries, etc. The “major shopping trip” you mention doing elsewhere is with what they were not being competitive. Bad business, poor vision. Rents there are definitely high, but I suspect a more sustainable business model to include the full spectrum of shoppers interests there would have made the rent moot. Let’s hope the next merchant to come in will take a hint from these failures and we as shoppers in the area get to benefit from that lesson in the future.
I don’t usually delight in anyone’s misfortune, but I gotta say good riddance to this place and to Lisa especially. Bad service and sub-par, overpriced food. The only thing worse than Lisa Hemenway’s ego is her attitude. As a neighbor, and a big fan of the previous (and much loved) Skyhawk Market, we will not miss this place. Looking forward to the next incarnation; it’s gotta be better than this.
As someone contracted to do work for Lisa, the process impressed me. No bad attitude and no ego. Sometimes you just get back what you put out.
Exactly EZ. And perhaps that’s why god created Yelp. For many (eg. Meg), the retail experience is not about the obvious…it’s about some weird perception of how they think they were treated. How sad it must be to be consistently let down by a level of expectations that are simply not possible to ever meet. Read Yelp and you’ll realize that unhappy people delight in dinging businesses on their perceived attitude, ego, etc. When in fact, they’ve treated the retailer as a servant — or worse. You really do get back what you put out. Lisa’s talented and cool. EZ is a cranky pants.
Wow. I have to disagree. I had a few meals there- the food consistently impressed me and the wait staff was wonderful.
Will be missed.
You are sick the food was always good
It’s a dang good thing I don’t have the money to open a restaurant or small market, cause I would have thought that was a can’t-miss location. Oh for two now.
It is a very good location; the problem is the merchants flocking there seem to think that being near a neighborhood full of families with small children is the place to sell “chic deli” and other “high end groceries.” With Safeway just down the road, nobody living in the area is going to frequent the Skyhawk location for regular food shopping until such time as merchants get a clue and start offering a wider range of foods and goods which are also reasonably priced. Having lived in the area for two years, there is no way I am going to bother shopping there and dropping the money they have been charging to date – convenience be hanged.
I sold Lisa the best of the best when it came to her meat items in the late ninety’s she served the best in quality I hope her the best as I know it will be. Good luck Lisa you will always do well Thanks for the business