Jackie Robinson sculpture Pasadena City Hall
Pasadena

Wandering the back alleys and side streets in Old Town Pasadena

by carollightwood
smith Alley at one colorado
The statue of the man with hammer looks down Smith Alley which runs from the One Colorado plaza to Union Street. One Colorado has mostly Mall shops lining it, but lots of free outdoor entertainment year ’round..

In front of City Hall are two large sculptured heads: baseball legends Jackie Robinson and his brother, both of whom grew up in Pasadena. But stroll a couple of blocks away and you enter the older world of  Old Town.

Because Pasadena’s Old Town is, in fact, old, it has narrow alleys, both small and large hidden plazas, quirky stores and upstairs restaurants with outdoor balcony dining and basement beer sellers-cellars. Some date back to the city’s founding in 1875; others opened just last month.

As I wandered through the area on a very hot October Sunday afternoon I discovered that ’21 Choices’, a frozen yogurt shop on Colorado that had been in that location for nearly 50 years, had closed.

In the next block, a new Tesla showroom occupied the location of the former Barnes & Noble.  Bookstores have vanished all along Colorado Blvd.

And ‘Chaddo’, an English tearoom that had been around for years and seemed very popular, has been replaced with a glorified hot dog eatery called the Meat District where L.A. street style hotdogs cost $14!  Well…changes happen and some are better than others.

Along Holly and Union Streets are some interesting shops, some new and some old.

Here are a few things I saw:

alley in Old Town Pasadena
The Santorini cafe is upstairs in an alley off One Colorado plaza and has an outdoor balcony for dining during warm weather. I love their cioppino, a San Francisco seafood stew.
pop champagne and dset bar
When a friend told me about a champagne/desert bar that had opened just as the economy collapsed  in 2008 I thought it would be gone within months. Years later it is still on Union Street and still very popular.
gold bug gift store Pasadena
The Gold Bug is an astonishing shop filled with items from a rich man’s curio cabinet. No photographs are allowed, but I can tell you that a pair of stuffed beavers occupied one storefront window.
lula mae storefront having it all
Quirky barely describes the little gift shop Lula Mae at the corner of Holly and Fair Oaks. I loved these inspirational banners in the front window, especially about “…something wonderful is  about to begin.” “Having it all” is not bad either. (Lula Mae has since closed.)
embroidery class at lula mae
I smile whenever I read the email announcing craft classes at Lula Mae. They are the same crafts I did back in the 1960s in San Francisco! In this class they are actually drawing their own designs to embroider later.
tibet nepal galleria
The Tibet Nepal Galleria has been on Holly street for years. Somehow it survived the economic downturn after 2007 when many other little shops along Holly Street vanished. There are no vacant storefronts in Old Town these days!
looking north at union street in old town pasadena
On the edge of Old Town is Memorial Park, lined with palm trees, where free concerts are held night after night during the summer months. The Gold Line Metro station is in this park.

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