San Luis Obispo Merchant

SHOP THE SLO LIFE WITH THE SAN LUIS OBISPO COLLECTION: INFUSING NATIONAL SHOPS WITH SLO SPIRIT 路 OP-ED BY DOMINIC TARTAGLIA OF DOWNTOWN SLO 路 OUT OF POCKET

IN THIS ISSUE

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 路 SUMMER, 2014

SLO SUMMER The San Luis Obispo Collection brings together world class shopping, the city’s finest restaurants, upscale retail, museums and theater, and sits adjacent to Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. San Luis Obispo, named the Happiest City in America, is the cultural hub of the Central Coast, which embodies the California lifestyle and offers locals and visitors alike historic architecture, sweeping vineyards, pristine beaches, charming beach towns and mountain ranges, and is home to Cal Poly University.

Please enjoy the SLO Merchant, our new community newsletter.

INFUSING NATIONAL STYLE WITH NATIVE SPIRIT

Sommer, Sara, and Nora—managers of Sephora, Pottery Barn, and Barnes & Noble­—meet to discuss how they bring the SLO spirit to their national shops.

ake a walk through downtown San Luis

T

She was a store manager and footwear buyer

central coast vibe with its sunshine, ocean

breezes, and strolling shoppers. Therese Cron,

business sold, she transplanted her local spirit straight into the heart of SLO’s new Pottery Barn

Obispo, and you can’t help but feel the

property manager of the San Luis Obispo

Collection, wondered how SLO’s downtown district manages to feel so local while still

delivering such a diversity of regional and national shopping? She invited Sommer Pezzi, Sara Boller, and Nora Johnson—managers for national powerhouses Sephora, Pottery Barn, and Barnes & Noble—for a lunch meeting at

Palazzo Giuseppe to talk about how they infuse

for local favorite Copeland Sports. When that location. Nora—the centeral coast’s most recent transplant—lives in Atascadero. She believes

that bookstores are the heart of a community,

and one of her favorite things is working with central coast schools, hosting book fairs and

field trips, keeping school reading lists in stock,

and giving away free books through Barnes & Noble’s Summer Reading Program.

their national shops with SLO spirit.

All three managers agree that making a personal

Sommer, Sara, and Nora found their ways to the

local spice into the national brew. Sommer loves

central coast from regions as far flung as Guam to as nearby as Morongo Valley, but they all share

a passion for California’s local culture. Sommer

has lived in Shell Beach for more than fourteen years. She calls her staff at Sephora “amazing” and encourages them to challenge themselves

daily to provide Sephora’s clients with a sense of home. Sara—a true local—has been in San

Luis Obispo since she started Cal Poly in 1989.

connection with local clients is the key to mixing

thinking out of the box when she’s assisting her local clientele, treating clients as if they are

friends—and indeed, she says, many clients do

become friends. As Therese concluded from their discussion, “San Luis Obispo has all the

amenities of a world-class shopping destination, but with much better weather and relaxed, happy managers who really love what they do.”

Pictured right: top to bottom: Sommer, Nora, Sara

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SAN LUIS OBISPO: WHERE MEMORIES ARE BORN

An op-ed piece by Dominic Tartaglia of the SLO Downtown Association on what makes experiences memborable in downtown San Luis Obispo.

A

t

the

San

Luis

Obispo

Downtown

Association we are in the business of

creating unique experiences for our residents and guests that are just as memorable as the

smell of fresh cut grass and a Santa Maria style BBQ. SLO’s downtown has a rich diversity of

businesses, friendships, and backgrounds as well as the stories that go along with

so much local character. These kinds of personal connections transform a Thursday night Farmers’ Market into an experience as

memorable as a first kiss or the last taste of a barbequed rib that you still dream about.

While the kiss and the rib are the focal point of the memory, the ambiance surrounding that moment is is what makes the experience

memorable. Providing this sense of place and community is something the SLO Downtown Association takes very seriously.

Today, walking through downtown San Luis Obispo you can still see the buildings that

this town was built around: Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, the Anderson and Wineman

Hotels, and the Creamery for example. When San Luis Obispo developed, Downtown was the cultural center for many miles and those

buildings were the foundation for many

people’s businesses and fondest memories.

My dad recalls, as a young boy, bouncing down a country road toward the Downtown

Creamery to deposit the family farm’s milk.

The careful preservation of the buildings and local economy are the keystones of what

created the atmosphere that has drawn guests

from around the world to our neighborhood for many years.

While putting lights in trees creates an

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experience for visitors, it’s really just teeing

of the community is the result of generations

stories to be shared with future generations

turn, those exchanges create a hub for the

up the chance for the next set of memories and of the “Great Downtown San Luis Obispo.”

As a neighborhood we take pride in keeping the streets clean and inviting, much like

people take pride in keeping their front yards manicured and green. We do this because we

want people from surrounding neighborhoods

to feel welcome and safe when they visit, and we hope to see them often. This simple act of

sharing our shops and businesses with the rest

of cultural exchanges among neighbors. In

community where rich experiences happen

and fond memories are born. For 39 years the San Luis Obispo Downtown Association has

played host to countless parades, markets, concerts, events, and warm summer nights,

and we look forward to many more years to

come where our traditions can become your fondest memories. Vist downtownslo.com to learn more.

FASHION & HOME GOODS

Jamba Juice jambajuice.com

Abercrombie & Fitch abercrombie.com

Palazzo Giuseppe palazzogiuseppe.com

Banana Republic bananarepublic.com

Pizza Solo pizzasolo.com

Chico’s chicos.com

Sal’s Paradise slosals.com

Express express.com

SloCo Pasty Co. slocopastyco.com

GAP gap.com

Splash Cafe Seafood & Grill splashcafe.com

Ian Saude Gallery iansaude.com

Starbucks starbucks.com

Moondoggies Surf Shop moondoggies.com

SERVICES

Pottery Barn potterybarn.com

Solstice Sunglass Boutique solsticesunglasses.com Sunglass Hut sunglasshut.com

Sephora sephora.com

Salon Lux-Aveda salonlux.com

SPECIALTY

Urban Outfitters urbanoutfitters.com

The Apple Store apple.com

White House Black Market whitehouseblackmarket.com

Cal Poly Downtown calpoly.edu

Victoria’s Secret victoriassecret.com

FOOD

Bali’s Yogurt 805-594-1172

Bull’s Tavern facebook.com/bullstavernslo Chinos Rock & Tacos chinorocks.com

California Pizza Kitchen cpk.com

Barnes and Noble barnesandnoble.com The Movie Experience themovieexperience.com Open Air Flowers openairflowersslo.com Papyrus papyrusonline.com

Powell’s Sweet Shoppe powellsss.com

IN PLAIN SIGHT

Man-about-town George Krauth dishes on the fashions, flavors, designs, and décor he discovers as he travels the globe tracking trends as Creative Director for Jamestown.

W

hen I was a kid, I collected things related to

latest big development. The Creative & Marketing

pub, the color of the sky over San Francisco Bay

of swizzle sticks from a globe trotting aunt

building the brand identities themselves, each with

to vision boards that we’ve created for each of

travel: restaurant matchbooks, postcards,

even airline luggage tags. Fueled by an assortment collected at the dawn of the Jet Age, this penchant

for squirreling away cool stuff has served me well as Creative Director for Jamestown. I encourage

all my team members to make note of the things that inspire them, and we compete in a friendly

competition to bring in the next chip of tile or

swatch of fabric that will end up in Jamestown’s

team’s main task is to create brands for Jamestown developments. Not only are we charged with

a logo, website, and an array of printed collateral; we are also challenged to extend those brands

in all kinds of ways, including signage, fixtures

and furnishings, colors and trims, façades, and

the creation of brands-within-brands for events

and specialized activities. Everything inspires us: the felted coaster under our bourbon at the local

in September, the ribbon on a tote bag we found at the gift show in Paris. We pin our inspirations

our brands. This encourages us to brainstorm in plain sight. It’s pretty amazing, as a new brand

develops, to let your eyes drift from a tattered old signal flag you pinned to the board months before

to the bright blue brand it inspired at a property

like One West Victory. Visit Jamestownlp.com for more inspiration.

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