Do these ice cream businesses not realize that the Palo Alto market is already oversaturated? We do not need another gourmet ice cream shop!

Salt & Straw is a great place in Portland and I am looking forward to having one in Palo Alto. There are other great places in PA and this will be one as well. Better than Ben and Jerry's!

Decent restaurants cannot afford good cooks, good service of good ingredients because all their hard work and best intentions get sucked up in rent by greedy real estate speculators.

So, it is easy, profitable, minimal to no labor on-site and one or two people who can operate a cash register and an ice-cream scoop to make money for a business.

The rentier class has this whole Bay Area by the short and curlies and they will just keep pulling until everything is turned to whatever the opposite of ice cream is.

I wish them luck. If its excellent ice cream, then it should do well despite the competition. And with respect to rent, its the market that determines the price, not the "greedy real estate speculators." If rent is too high, then nobody signs a lease and the landlord either sits on an empty building or lowers the rent until it attracts a user. Nothing greedy about it...the same greedy landlords couldn't give retail space away a few short years ago...

Steve, there is no free market in Bay Area real estate, especially commercial real estate for many reasons. In a situation like this it just doesn't work, which is why most restaurants are so much worse than they used to be in the past. I guess for people who don't want to think about things too deeply it is nice to be able to say it's God's will, or the market. The market works in many, many things, but it also does not work in many things. If we had a free market in labor there would be no workers in this area because they would be competing with starving Africas. Read about Saipan, the largest island in the American territory known as the Northern Mariana Islands or CNMI. Bet you never heard of it, in Thomas Frank's "The Wrecking Crew" and then tell me about the free market as anything other than a beginning kiddie version of economics.

[A portion of this post has been removed.]

I don't know why this blog post about an interesting new ice-cream shop became an excuse for another pet CPA gripe, but since it did, Steve's observation about factors affecting commercial rent was perfectly right, and far past serious dispute. Our region happens to have a lot of demand just now, and rents are high; I've seen more than one period in the past when demand fell, and commercial space went begging for tenants.

> (Watch CrescentParkAnon respond, in character, to this comment too.)

In character I respond with facts and ideas, not personal attacks.

> even doubling down on them, no matter how clearly they're discredited

Trying to make an argument?

Most restaurants are paying so much in rent that the food and suffered to
the point that they are either too high a price point to keep a sufficient
customer base, or quality and service suffer to the point they end up going
out of business. Cheesecake House being the recent example.

Meanwhile we get a superabundance of junk food stores at a time when
we are know that sugar is the major health hazard to Californians and people
are demanding the "discredited" idea of the soda tax because it doesn't
seem to be turning around based on just moral upright character and
personal responsibility.

What is the point of having Prop. 13 for commercial property when rents on
long owned and paid off properties can make a windfall in rental charges
and not cut any slack for their lessees?

Editor, please do your job and delete personal attacks.

I think they'll do well despite the competition and here's why:

Scoop Microcreamery: used to be my favorite, but with the recent change in ownership it has taken a major turn for the worse and is a lot less busy now. A few months ago I would have seen them as a threat but not any more. If anything, S&S is a threat to Scoop.

Gelataio: my current favorite but is a little off the beaten track, and not trendy enough to threaten Salt & Straw.

Cream: You kidding me? Cream has already run it's course. It'll stay popular with the kids on a budget but poses no threat to S&S's artisan appeal.

Fraiche: It's yogurt. I'm surprised the author didn't mention Yogurtland because we have that downtown too. But anyway, yogurt is yogurt, not ice cream.

Gelato Classico: Every time I pass by, it's empty. They are no threat to anyone.

Bottom line: I predict that S&S will do well in Palo Alto. People around here like artisan crafty anything, even if it IS a chain.

> Gelato Classico: Every time I pass by, it's empty. They are no threat to anyone.

The best, fantastic, solidly the highest quality since the 80's. Love this place!
Every time I go there I have to wait in live ... the problem is that there is no good
parking so you have to drive by with someone in your car to go out and buy, or
be walking in Palo Alto downtown already.

Not sure about the one in Mountain View ... that one is not run as well as the
Palo Alto store.

I personally like Scoop Microcreamery. There service and wait times have greatly improved since their recent ownership change. And their ice cream is still one of the best i've had.

I'm excited to try out S&S, but I do hope small ice cream shops like Scoop don't get adversely affect by these chain ice cream stores.