BookBuyers now has in stock a selection of 2021 calendars, including those created by photographer Michael Santa Cruz. Featuring beautiful photos of local scenery, Santa Cruz's calendars make perfect gifts for family and friends! Stop by the bookshop at 600 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey and check them out.
On The Beach Surf Shop now has new Star Wars Mandalorian tees by Element in stock! Come check them out before they’re gone. We're located at 693 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey.
International Market and Deli is offering gift baskets made to order for the holidays. Filled with food from around the world, these make great gifts for friends and family members. Call us at 831-375-9451 or e-mail us and let's work together to select the right items for your basket.
International Market and Deli is located at 580 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey.
Considering the shorter days this time of year, it's more important than ever for cyclists to have a solid set of bike lights. All-weather headlights and tail lights provide visibility at night and help you stand out during the day.
Epicenter Cycling has just the right light(s) to suit your needs, whether you're a night-riding trail shredder, bike commuting 9-5er, or weekend asphalt slayer. Just swing by the shop at 230 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey to check out the latest and greatest items to assist with visibility.
Pearl Hour, located at 214 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey, has bad news and good news.
Bad news: we are closing our outdoor coffee shop for the fall and winter season. Thank you to everyone who visited the secret garden patio in the mornings and afternoons for coffee and pastries!
Good news: we are adding another day to our cocktail bar schedule. Beginning November 19, Pearl Hour will be serving cocktails and sushi on the patio Thursday - Sunday. Contact us for exact hours.
Casual Island has undergone a name change: we're now The Feral Market! We're still the same family-run operation we've always been, but we've turned the business fully over to the next generation.
At The Feral Market you'll not only find comfortable, affordable women's fashion, you'll also find a great selection of fun gifts and novelty items that are perfect for holiday shopping. Visit us at 261 Alvarado Street in Downtown Old Monterey, or check out our online store for a taste of what we have in the shop.
This holiday season, Downtown Old Monterey invites you to Shop Small and support locally-owned businesses. Your gifts warm the hearts of loved ones near and far and those purchases help our community weather tough times, keeping small businesses open. Need inspiration? View the Old Monterey Holiday Gift Ideas Gallery.
The denizens of Old Monterey will be here with a warm heart, a great style tip, a delicious cookie. We're selling gifts in-store, online, and over the phone. Many spots offer curbside pick-up or shipping (for a list, see our Shelter-in-Place Mall).
Small Business Saturday is traditionally celebrated on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the weekend that's the start of the holiday shopping season. But for the remainder of this year, let's make every day Small. Small pleasures. Small triumphs. Small steps forward together. Shop Small in Downtown Old Monterey.
From now through Thanksgiving Day, the City of Monterey invites you to enter to win a Monterey 250 commemorative poster celebrating Monterey's 250th birthday in our #GiveThanksNotCovid Campaign.
How to enter the drawing? Go on social media and share one or more of the 16 digital postcards available for download. Be sure to include the hashtag #GiveThanksNotCovid and tag @CityofMonterey.
Not on social media? Participants can also choose to share via text or email to family and friends. Email webmaster@monterey.org and let us know which postcard(s) you shared and you will also be entered to win a poster.
This year, let's give thanks, not Covid-19. As NYC ER Doctor Craig Spencer writes: "If you could see a Covid-19 patient struggling to breathe like we do in the ER, you’d immediately understand why we’re so worried and why it’s safest to cancel your in-person family meetups over the holidays. Next year will be safer and we’d like all of you to be there for it."
From now through Thanksgiving Day, the City of Monterey invites you to enter to win a Monterey 250 commemorative poster celebrating Monterey's 250th birthday in our #GiveThanksNotCovid Campaign.
How to enter the drawing? Go on social media and share one or more of the 16 digital postcards available for download. Be sure to include the hashtag #GiveThanksNotCovid and tag @CityofMonterey.
Not on social media? Participants can also choose to share via text or email to family and friends. Email webmaster@monterey.org and let us know which postcard(s) you shared and you will also be entered to win a poster.
This year, let's give thanks, not Covid-19. As NYC ER Doctor Craig Spencer writes: "If you could see a Covid-19 patient struggling to breathe like we do in the ER, you’d immediately understand why we’re so worried and why it’s safest to cancel your in-person family meetups over the holidays. Next year will be safer and we’d like all of you to be there for it."
Some of you may fondly remember pre-pandemic days when local jazz musician Stu Reynolds coordinated a Sunday jazz music series at East Village Coffee in Downtown Old Monterey. Well, Stu and his friends are still around and now they're taking their shows online!
The Stu Reynolds Saxtet, together with guest composer and pianist Biff Smith, will be live-streaming a performance on YouTube this Sunday, November 22, 1pm-3pm. Simply click here to join in at the appointed time. This is a free concert, but donations will be gratefully accepted.
The Stu Reynolds Saxtet is Steve Uccello (bass), Billy Jones (drums), and Stu Reynolds, (saxes and clarinets).
At Parker-Lusseau Pastries, we have some delicious seasonal cakes available for your Thanksgiving dinner! Our Pumpkin-Apple-Cinnamon Cake is apple cake topped with pumpkin creme brûlée and a cinnamon mousse. Our Caramel-Pear-Spice Cake contains pears baked in a ginger-spice cake topped with caramel mousse and a hint of ganache.
We know that Thanksgiving gatherings will be smaller this year due to the (never-ending) pandemic. Our cakes are available in sizes as small as 4 servings. Want something larger? No problem! We also offer larger-sized cakes (going up in size in 2-serving increments). Just ask. Please place your order early as we are flying like blind turkeys this season!
Parker-Lusseau Pastries and Cafe is located at 539 Hartnell Street in Downtown Old Monterey. Please phone us at 831-641-9188 or contact us through our website.
Gasper's Jewelers, located at 447 Alvarado Street in Downtown Old Monterey, offers beautiful and elegant gifts for the discerning holiday shopper. Owner Gasper Spadaro is now taking phone orders for his top-selling Everlasting Hand-Dipped 24k Gold Roses as well as custom made jewelry such as earrings, pendants, and bracelets.
Please phone Gasper at 831-594-2773 to discuss your order and place your deposit. (Be sure to leave a message if he's not able to pick up the phone when you call.) Having provided high quality jewelry designs in Monterey since 1989, he can help you find just the right gift.
It is with great joy that Youth Arts Collective presents our annual Holiday Art Show online! You can view all the artwork on our website now. Now, as ever, YAC is a great place to shop for holiday gifts, as artwork featured in the show is for sale.
Since you’re not able to meet these young artists in person, we’ve asked each of them to produce a short "meet the artist" video for the exhibit. The videos are as varied and engaging as they are. We think you'll enjoy the variety of voices and media in this year's show, which includes paintings, drawings, digital, and animation.
For 20 years, YAC has been able to make a lasting impact on many lives due to support from our community. We intend to keep providing YACsters with art and life skills training through new and ongoing virtual workshops, Zoom meetings, outdoor meetups (weather permitting), and exhibit opportunities like this this one.
But most of all, we provide these young artists with community and individual mentoring so they feel supported and less lonely, until we can all be together again in person. We’ve been able to help many of them stay emotionally buoyant and inspired and they've continued to make art and work toward their futures. Please consider supporting Youth Arts Collective with a tax deductible donation.
Monterey Public Library Friends and Foundation is holding a Used Book Grab Bag Sale on Saturday, November 21, 11am-2pm, on the back patio of Monterey Public Library, located at 625 Pacific Street in Downtown Old Monterey. (Weather permitting! They'll be there if it’s cold but not if it rains.) All funds raised will be used to purchase and catalog new library materials.
They have the bag for you, and you get to fill it yourself, choosing from a few select genres: fiction, science fiction/fantasy, mystery, history, biography, and children’s.
How it works:
*Put on your face-covering and come to the Library’s back patio.
*They will have your $10 grab bag(s) waiting for you
*Cash or check only. No credit cards.
*Careful health protocols will be observed.
*Enjoy “new-to-you” books – or share them with friends, family, and neighbors!
Are you looking for the perfect addition to your shelter-in-place Thanksgiving dinner? Paris Bakery is offering a beautiful selection of pies - pumpkin, pecan, apple, blueberry, cherry key lime, and lemon meringue - in addition to special Thanksgiving cookies and a full assortment of fresh breads and baked goods.
Please preorder your Thanksgiving delights by Monday, November 23 for pick-up on Wednesday, November 25 - call us at 831-646-1620. A family-owned business, Paris Bakery is located at 271 Bonifacio Place in Downtown Old Monterey.
UPDATE: We're actually going straight to the Purple (widespread) risk tier. An updated announcement was made this morning by Santa Clara County Public Health that the situation has devolved enough that we're skipping right over the Red Tier. This information is now out of date. More updates coming later today.
It's never a good thing when Santa Clara County's Public Health department sends you an email that reads like this:
After multiple weeks with slowly rising case counts, Santa Clara County is now seeing a sudden and rapid spike in cases. The average daily case count has jumped 56% in the past week for which we have full data. Similarly, hospitalizations are on the rise...
For several weeks, Santa Clara County seemed to be defying the odds. Despite escalating infection rates in counties around us, we managed to keep our rates low enough to stay in the Orange Tier.
Our good fortune has finally run out. Starting on Tuesday, November 17th, the following activities will no longer be permitted or have to follow more strict guidelines:
In October, the State of California's Covid-19 risk reduction guidelines were updated to allow for personal services to remain open with modifications in the Red and Purple Tiers. You will still be able to get massages, facials, and haircuts.
In the late summer months as our infection counts pressed downward and we were allowed to resume more and more activities, a lot of people let their guards down. If we all return to being our most cautious and responsible selves, we just might be able to avoid stumbling all the way back to the most restrictive tier of California's risk reduction guidelines or at least keep our stay in the basement as short as possible.
That's going to start and end with wearing a mask at all times except when it's simply not possible to be wearing one and limiting your interaction with people from outside of your household as much as possible. The virus doesn't care how long you've known someone or if you're best friends with them.
You can be vigilant and still be good friends so keep your mask on, keep your distance, and be super responsible.
Just in time for the extended holiday shopping season in this Year of Our Pandemic, we've added a Gift Ideas Gallery to our website to help you shop our stores online. Keep an eye on the gallery because we'll be adding to it several times a week throughout the holiday season. You'll be pleasantly surprised at all the wondrous things packed into our mighty little Downtown.
You can use our Gift Ideas Gallery to help you browse our shops virtually and plan out your shopping in advance so you don't have to wander into every single store in search of the perfect token of your affection. In normal times, we'd have hot chocolate and a red carpet out to welcome you to explore every last shop your heart desires, but it's 2020. We want what's best for everyone's safety and sanity. We want to help you find what you're looking for so you can get back home and stay away from people you don't live with.
The Gift Ideas Gallery also might save you a trip entirely too. Many of the items featured in it are available directly online from the e-commerce stores of our retail shops. For the items that can't be purchased online, a phone call to the store is often all you need to order the item for store-front pick-up or delivery by mail.
Lilify is excited to introduce the result of our collaboration with talented local ceramic artist Vanessa Cowdrey. This exquisite modern take on an ikebana vessel is available in three stackable sizes. Vanessa created these circular vases with an exposed white claybody (stoneware) and a clear glazed, watertight interior. The vessels can also hang on the wall.
Made in Monterey and available only at Lilify, you can purchase them online or in our store at 281 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey.
Thanksgiving may be celebrated differently than in years past, but that doesn’t mean it can't be done in a festive way. We all know that outdoor, physically distanced small gatherings are safer than indoors. Chic Event Rentals is here to provide you with outdoor tables, chairs, lighting, heating, and more to make the atmosphere bright and comfortable.
Chic Event Rental is now offering a 10% discount on all Thanksgiving rentals. Simply mention this ad when placing your order. Please call us at 831-375-1055 or email us for more information. Locally owned, our showroom can be found at 485 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey.
