The Country Mart, the way a local uses it
The Brentwood Country Mart sits at 225 26th Street, right where San Vicente crosses into Santa Monica, and it has been there since 1948. It is a cluster of red barn buildings around a courtyard, and for a lot of us it is less a shopping center than a town square with parking.
The loop
Here is the circuit we run most weeks. Mail first, because there is a post office substation and because doing the boring thing first buys patience for everything after. Then Diesel, the bookstore, where each kid is allowed one book and I am allowed to pretend I am only looking. Then lunch.
Lunch is Reddi Chick. If you grew up here you already know: rotisserie chicken in a paper basket over a pile of fries, eaten at a courtyard table with napkins you will run out of. It has fed three generations of my family and I expect it to feed a fourth.
Dessert is Sweet Rose Creamery. Ice cream made with real ingredients, flavors that change with the season, and a line that moves faster than it looks. On a hot day the walk from Reddi Chick to Sweet Rose is about forty steps, which is the right distance.
The grown-up version
Without the kids, the Mart is Farmshop for a proper lunch or a dinner that feels like an occasion, and a lap through the shops: Jenni Kayne, James Perse, Clare V., Sugar Paper for the kind of stationery that makes you want to write a thank-you note. Caffe Luxxe is here too, so a Saturday can begin and end in the same courtyard.
Poppy Store and Toy Crazy are the two doors my kids pull toward. If you need a last-minute birthday present for a child, between those two you are covered.
Why it matters to a house hunt
When a buyer tells me they want to be "near the Mart," I know exactly what they mean, and it is not shopping. They want a place they can walk to with kids on a Saturday, see neighbors, and be home in time for a nap. The streets of Santa Monica north of Montana and the Brentwood blocks around 26th Street are the ones that deliver that walk. It is one of the first questions I ask, because it narrows the map more than a price range does.
Practical notes
- The lot is small and the turns are tight. Weekend mornings before 11 are easiest.
- The courtyard tables are first come, first served. Send one person ahead with the kids.
- Order for the whole table at Reddi Chick in one go, and bring napkins from home anyway. I am serious.
Questions about a street, a house or a number? Text or call me at 310.498.1415, or email cwgrazianorealty@gmail.com.
Christina Woodward Graziano is a California real estate licensee (DRE #02072713) with Keller Williams Beverly Hills, 439 N. Canon Drive, Penthouse, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Each Keller Williams office is independently owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity. This post is general information from one agent, not legal, tax, insurance or financial advice; talk to your own professionals before you act on it. Business mentions are personal opinion. Nobody paid to be in this post.