for Albert T. Balzer on Larchmont Boulevard (1930).
Balzer Market opened on Larchmont Boulevard around 1926 and quickly became one of the most successful businesses on the street. The gourmet market occupied two store spaces on the Boulevard – 133 and 135
North Larchmont (today home to Heavenly Couture and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf).
According to the LA Times, famous regulars included Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred Hitchcock. The Larchmont
Chronicle took a look back at early Larchmont in a 2003 article and here’s what they have to say about Balzer’s Market:
Balzer’s purveyed quality groceries to the “carriage trade” of Windsor Square and Hancock Park. Business was primarily conducted by charge and delivery. Customers bought in quantity to stock the pantries in the large homes. Canned goods were sold by the case; sugar and flour in 100- and 200-pound sacks. The store sold a ton of cheddar each month. In 1957, Jurgensen’s purchased the Balzer store.
Albert Balzer’s son, Robert Lawrence Balzer became America’s first wine writer. He got his start on Larchmont Boulevard stocking the shelves at his father’s grocery and taking on the role of buying wine for the store in post-prohibition 1936. Robert Lawrence Balzer wrote a wine column for the LA Times for three decades and was a major influence on the California wine industry.
Would you support a store like Balzer’s on today’s Larchmont Boulevard?
Thanks to LarchmontBuzz.com reader Erik Crezpo for sharing the photo!
Read more:
Larchmont Chronicle: Looking Back at Larchmont
Wine Spectator: Robert Lawrence Balzer 1912-2011
LA Times: Robert Lawrence Balzer Dies at 99, L.A. Times Wine Writer
So much more elegant and lovely then.
Not only would I support a store like this — I would do it
daily! It would make life in the Village altogether more practical,
enjoyable, useful — and would keep us out of our cars and out of
the traffic.
YES YES YES. How nice it would be to have a place to go
(like Jurgensens was) fore good cheese, special treats, interesting
jars of Italian additions to salads and sandwiches, non -Ralphs
food of all kinds in other words, much more useful than hats and
tennis shoes, which let’s face it are not a daily need
……
Nothing could make me happier than having an excellent market on Larchmont – where we could get all the stuff to make a lovely meal at the last minute. Produce, meats and cheeses, pastas,
condiments and oils. As well as some staples like paper products and soaps. If not this, then a Joan’s on Third-type market where we could get dinner to go. It would be so nice to walk to such a place!