To most, Redwood City consists of a good-sized downtown, retail and businesses along El Camino Real, and more retail and businesses along Woodside Road and Broadway, with the rest being residential (mostly single-family homes, with some apartments, and parks scattered hear and there). But those of us who live here also know that there are a handful of small pockets of retail located in various parts of the city: places where nearby residents can more conveniently do some of their shopping and some of their dining. Some of Redwood City’s best restaurants, retail, and services businesses can be found in these scattered “hot pockets,” so if you aren’t familiar with all of them, read on.

One of the clearest, and best, retail pockets is located at the corner of Oak Knoll Drive and Canyon Road, in the appropriately named Canyon neighborhood. Here you’ll find the very popular Canyon Inn restaurant, which has been serving burgers, hot dogs, pizza, Mexican food, and more, plus beer and wine, all in a very family friendly environment.

Kitty corner from the Canyon Inn is a small shopping center that is anchored by the Bonfare Market and Liquor store. While you wouldn’t necessarily do all of your grocery shopping there, you probably could, depending upon your needs. In any case, if it is convenient to where you live, this market is a great place to pick up those few items you may have forgotten: a couple of eggs, a quart of milk, some ice cream, and so forth. And a good chunk of the store is given over to liquor, so if you need to grab a bottle of wine or a fifth of Scotch on your way to a party, for instance, give them a visit.

The Bonfare Market center also contains a number of popular restaurants and service businesses. Sancho’s Taqueria is one of the most well-known, but so is Speederia Pizzeria (which is located on the Canyon Road side of the center). Speederia is a great place to get slices of New York-style pizza; I occasionally stop in there for lunch. Between Speederia and Sancho’s, facing Oak Knoll, you’ll find Emerald Hills Cafe & Roastery, which I understand is a great place for a cup of coffee. Or for beans, I guess: they roast their own and sell bags of the stuff (not being a coffee drinker, I can’t say much more beyond that — but check their website for all of their beans). And of course, being a cafe they also sell food items to go with your cup of coffee.

On the corner, there is Cielo Salon, for hair. Within the center, next to Sancho’s, you’ll find Canyon Cleaners, Snap Fitness (a locally-owned fitness facility) and La Bella Nails & Spa. Beneath Bonfare Market you’ll find Dogz 101: they provide dog training and grooming services. And finally, beside the market is Browlissima Studio, who seems to specialize in eyebrows and eyelashes, Asaya Restaurant (serving Japanese food), and Aroma House, a restaurant that serves Indian food.

Across from Canyon Inn (and across from Emerald Hills Cafe & Roaster you’ll find Canyon Gas & Propane, and Canyon Auto Service. Their gas prices tend to be reasonable, and they’ve become my “go-to” place to swap out propane tanks.

As you can tell, this particular pocket is pretty full-service. The next one, not far away at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Alameda de las Pulgas and just barely in the Roosevelt neighborhood, is not quite so complete. It does begin with another independent, relatively inexpensive gas station on the corner, however:

Note that this gas station is designed for one-way traffic: you enter it from the Alameda de las Pulgas side. To the left of the station, along Jefferson Avenue, is the Jefferson Plaza strip center. From left-to-right, this center contains the B&W Market, which is really just a liquor store, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, and the ever-popular Donut King (I’ll let you guess what they sell). Continuing on, there is a barber shop and a tattoo parlor. Finally, there is the 9 Lives Foundation cat clinic, from whom you can adopt a cat and where you can apparently get some amount of medical services for your family feline.

Finally, still part of this pocket but a bit farther down Jefferson (and across Upton Street) is Emerald City Liquors & Premium Wine.

Their sign advertises a lot more than just liquors, wine, and beer, but it might be over-promising a bit; I haven’t been in there in a long time, and don’t recall seeing much other than bottles and cans. Certainly I had never noticed a dry cleaner in the building, but I did peek around the corner and there was indeed such a service there once, although from its appearance I’m guessing that they are no longer in business:

If I’m wrong about that, please add a comment to this post and let me know!

Head down Upton Street and you’ll reach Redwood City’s next “hot pocket”: Dehoff’s Key Market, Rite Aid, and the Roosevelt Plaza, all located around the intersection of Upton Street and Roosevelt Avenue. My wife and I often shop at Key Market. It is a family-owned independent market, well-stocked with a wide variety of high-quality items. Their deli and meat counters are great, as is their produce section. We particularly appreciate their responsiveness to their customers: if they don’t have a brand or product we are looking for, we mention it to the manager and often we’ll find it there on our next visit.

Roosevelt Center, which is located just across the street from Key Market, has a nice variety of small shops and restaurants. Once upon a time there was a small hardware store in this center, but unfortunately it is long gone. These days, you’ll find a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store, a self-service laundromat, Prima Deli (a terrific sandwich shop), Big Brothers Burgers, Oh Baby Sushi Bar and Grill, a Little Caesars pizza outlet, a liquor store, two hair salons, a nail shop, a dentist, a martial arts studio, a place that does permanent makeup, and, again, a liquor store.

Between the market, the drugstore, and the various businesses located at Roosevelt Center, plus the fact that there is also a Shell gas station at this intersection, you can do a lot of living in this part of Redwood City. Thus, it is one of the city’s really good retail pockets.

As tempting as it is to call Woodside Plaza one of the city’s pockets, because it is located right along Woodside Road (at Massachusetts Avenue) it probably needs to be disqualified, at least according to my rules. But I mention it because it is so well-equipped, because it is quite a way down Woodside Road from central Redwood City, and because, in a case of the tail wagging the dog, the neighborhood in which it is located — Woodside Plaza — is named after it.

Massachusetts Avenue splits Woodside Plaza in half. In total, though, you’ll find a Lucky grocery store, a Rite Aid pharmacy, a Michaels craft store, a Hassett ACE Hardware store, a Ross Dress for Less, a Pet Food Express, and various restaurants and service providers. There is also a branch post office in the center (tucked in beside the great Redwood Grill restaurant). In the immediate area you’ll also find banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank), a deli, two paint stores… it goes on and on. Which probably is why this particular area, as terrific as it is, probably shouldn’t qualify as a “pocket.”

The next one that does indeed qualify, in my opinion, is out in Redwood Shores: the Marketplace at Redwood Shores, along Redwood Shores Parkway between Twin Dolphin and Shoreline drives. Here you’ll find a fairly conventional neighborhood shopping center, albeit a nice one. Nob Hill Foods serves as the anchor grocery store, and is joined by a number of restaurants including Falafel Tazah, Bagel Street Cafe, The Grill House, Otoko Sushi, Five Guys (burgers and fries), Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, a Mendocino Farms sandwich shop, and Starbucks. Service businesses include Supercuts (for haircuts), Postal Annex, an Orange Theory fitness studio, and a couple of banks (Chase Bank, Bank of America, and Provident Credit Union) plus a dentist’s office, a Re/Max real estate office, a VisionOne optometry center, and JEI Learning Center.

From the list of stores and service businesses in the Marketplace at Redwood Shores, and because it contains the only retailer establishments out in Redwood Shores, I have to imagine that many — or most — of the people who live there do at least some of their shopping at the Marketplace. I personally haven’t spent much time there (I’ve walked through it a couple of times, but haven’t really patronized more than one or two of its stores) but it is a very attractive looking center and I know I’d shop there if I lived nearby.

Next, I need to jump from Redwood Shores, in the far northern part of the city, all the way to the southern end. First up, at the corner of Marsh Road and Florence Street, is the Marsh Manor shopping center. Redwood City’s border might not cross over Florence Street except for this shopping center, and its tax base. In any case, the Marsh Manor shopping center is located in the southwest corner of the Friendly Acres neighborhood, a long, narrow portion of Redwood City that extends from Woodside Road down to Marsh Road, and straddles Highway 101. This particular center is uniquely positioned at a point where Redwood City, Menlo Park, Atherton, and a portion of unincorporated San Mateo County all come together. Thus, it serves a diverse group of people.

At one end of the center — well away from Marsh Road — is Delucchi’s Market and Delicatessen, a really nice, family-owned grocery store. This is a great market that appears to be somewhat high-end, perhaps because it serves customers from Atherton and Menlo Park in addition to those living in or near the Friendly Acres neighborhood. The rest of the center is composed of the usual collection of restaurants and service businesses.

Out along Marsh Road is a Starbucks and a UPS Store. Then, running parallel to Florence Street, there is a dry cleaners, an Allstate insurance office, a yoga studio, Salt & Light Salon, Paradise Flowers & Gifts, a workout studio, and Wells Fargo Bank. The center also contains Bay Area Integrative Health Care, which offers “alternative treatments to promote healing and wellness,” and Future Dental Care. As for restaurants, there are plenty: Freewheel Brewing Company, Los Gallos Taqueria, Lavender ’n Cream (a pastry shop), and State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria.

Finally, there is one more pocket serving the Friendly Acres neighborhood. This one, however, is not entirely located in Redwood City. Instead, the bulk of it can be found just across the street, on a couple of parcels that are in unincorporated San Mateo County. This particular pocket can be found at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Bay Road. Three of the four corners at that recently renovated intersection are located within Redwood City’s Friendly Acres neighborhood, with houses on two of them and a 7-11 convenience store on the third:

The 7-11 store is in Redwood City, as is the Pets in Need animal shelter immediately behind it (and the building with the tower, which, except for the tower itself, I assume, is home to one or two data centers).

The fourth corner at this intersection, as I noted, is not actually in Redwood City, but that doesn’t prevent the businesses extending from there along Fifth Avenue from serving the many Redwood City residents living nearby. This particular pocket begins with an Exxon gas station, and then continues with a small strip center called MidPoint Plaza:

As you can see, this is a very small center. It consists of a smoke shop, Maria’s Cafe, a hair salon, a self-service laundromat, Cipotes Restaurant (Salvadoran cuisine), Super Pure Water, and 5th and Thrift, a thrift store.

Finally, just past the thrift store is a Mi Tienda grocery store:

I have yet to step inside, but according to Yelp they serve hot food as well as sell groceries.

That about does it for my list of “hot pockets” in Redwood City. At one time I would have put Broadway Plaza on the list, but that center is long gone and the property is of course being redeveloped. I should note, however, that there is still a Smart & Final store at the intersection of Broadway and Woodside Road, and the new CVS Pharmacy next door to the Smart & Final is nearly open. Plus, there is a Denny’s restaurant and a Jack-in-the-Box, both on the same block as the Broadway Plaza development, right at the corner of Broadway and Woodside Road. Plus, once the Broadway Plaza development is complete — three apartment buildings and three office buildings — there will be some small amount of retail inside the apartment building that fronts onto Woodside Road, so perhaps this area will make my list once again.

Most Redwood City residents likely shop along the city’s major streets — El Camino Real and Woodside Road — assuming that they don’t leave the city altogether to do their shopping, of course. But these retail “hot pockets” show that there is far more to the city than just those two major thoroughfares.

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Casa Circulo Cultural’s celebration of Dia de los Muertos will be held this Sunday, November 5, from 3:30 – 8:30 p.m. in Courthouse Square (the welcome speech and procession begins at 6 p.m.). “Attendees can enjoy the ceremonial altars created by the members of the community, a procession, catrinas, face painting, free children’s activities, food court, and live entertainment throughout the evening. There will be booth vendors offering traditional Dı́a De los Muertos food such as: hot chocolate, pan de muerto, tamales, and more!”

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On Saturday, November 4, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Friends of the Redwood City Public Library will be holding their fall book sale. Located in the Children’s Area of the Redwood City Downtown Library (but aimed at both adults and children), the sale will consist of thousands of used books, DVDs, CDs, puzzles, and more. Everything will be extremely reasonably priced, so do drop by and check it out. Proceeds will be used to support library programming.