Shop Talk

Liz Taylor spent 25 years working in the corporate world as a retail buyer, but she always wanted to go into business for herself. And that business, opened in May, is Tootsies Rockridge. Described as “affordable and adorable,” Tootsies is a fun, funky store on College Avenue, where women can find all the latest in quality footware, from $20 flip-flops to $200 Olivia Rose Tal brand shoes.

Besides selling boutique brands like Vanelli, Moda, and Yellowbox, Tootsies goes one step further in the foot-pampering arena. At the back of the store, there’s a pedicure bar for women staged on a deck with three Adirondack chairs under green and blue canopies.

Pedicures cost $25 and are offered Tuesday through Saturday. Taylor sees her pedicure price point as existing in a “niche between the $18 factory salon and the $60 high end.” Tootsies’s pedicures use plastic footbaths with disposable liners instead of the usual pedicure chairs, making it a completely hygienic procedure.

Taylor says Tootsies has more ambience than a typical salon or shoe store. Her customers, she adds, are “happy when they come in and happy when they leave.”

Tootsies Rockridge, 5525 College Avenue, Oakland, (510) 595-7272.

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Shelley Grubb’s Lulu Rae Confections is almost a family business. Grubb named the store for her two teen daughters, Lauren “Lulu” Louise and Allyson Rae, both of whom work in the shop. Lauren does pick-ups while Allyson mans the counter.

“It’s always been a desire of mine to have a retail store, and my love for chocolates and candies was the impetus,” says Grubb, who opened for business in February. “When I was just starting, Allyson said, ‘I asked for some candy and you bought me the whole store!’ ”

Disappointed by the lack of good chocolate shops in the East Bay, Grubb started out in hopes that she could bring Chicago’s famous Vosges truffles to the Bay Area. But it turns out there was a reason that Vosges truffles have never left Chicago: they are too delicate to ship long distances. Despite that initial disappointment, Lulu Rae carries Vosges bars, gelato, XOX handmade truffles from San Francisco, and Leonidas chocolate from Belgium.

Besides pure chocolate, Lulu Rae also offers some of the world’s more exotic chocolate combinations. “They’ll mix anything together,” says Grubb of today’s couture chocolate makers. “People have already discovered chocolate, now they’re moving on to what makes it interesting and fun. It’s surprising what combinations work.” Grubb noted some of the stranger varieties of Vosges bars that Lulu Rae offers: Black Pearl (wasabi and ginger) and Red Fire (chili). Lulu Rae also makes its own homemade fudge, chocolate-dipped dried fruit, fruit and nut clusters, as well as its special blends of coffee and hot drinking chocolate.

Lulu Rae Confections, 6311 College Avenue, Oakland, (510) 547-9338; www.lulurae.com.

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Kristina Rodriguez was inspired to start Spa de Esperanza by dealing with her own skin problems.

“I had horrible acne,” says Rodriguez, who opened her salon in May. “No one could help me, so eventually I decided to see what I could do myself and to start helping others.”

A graduate of Paris Beauty College in Concord, Rodriguez specializes in facials, massage, body wraps, and waxing. Massages are especially popular, and range from $55 (Swedish) to $125 (Hot Stone, where water-heated basalt stones are applied to key pressure points in the body, giving a deep massage).

Rodriguez, who is from mixed Italian and Filipino heritage, wanted Spa de Esperanza to be a place where people of all backgrounds could feel at home. Every room has its own distinctive cultural flavor, from the homey Southwest room, adobe-colored and decorated with cacti, to the lavish European room, with rich burgundy drapes, black and white Venetian masks on the wall, and an ornate wardrobe in the corner.

Spa de Esperanza offers treatments à la carte or as package deals starting at $90 that include a facial or massage followed by dinner next door at Cugini (1556 Solano Avenue). The spa is open until 9 p.m. most nights so clients can relax and detox after a day at work.

Spa de Esperanza, 1564 Solano Avenue, Berkeley, (510) 525-8700; www.spadeesperanza.com. Open by appointment.

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Gallery Sam started out as Evan Morganstein’s private art collection, but when it outgrew his home he knew he had to start a gallery.
“I got mad thinking about all the museums and private collectors who just put art in storage where no one will ever see it,” says Morganstein, who opened the gallery four years ago in Oakland but moved it to Berkeley in January. “If I’m not going to hang something in my house, I’m going to put it back in the public stream.”

Gallery Sam, unlike many art galleries, doesn’t focus on one particular kind of art. Instead, the variety of paintings reflects Morganstein’s own eclectic tastes, featuring contemporary artists like Roy Lerner, James Bohary, and Mike Growes, making Gallery Sam a one-stop shop for serious art collectors. Representational paintings are displayed on the gallery’s lower level with abstract art upstairs.

Morganstein, formerly owner of an ad agency, prides him-self on his unique approach to acquiring art for display. “If I see something I like, I seek that artist out and tell them what I’m doing here,” says Morganstein. “I’ve found a lot of them really like the idea of what I’m doing, having a gallery where there’s something for everybody.”

Gallery Sam, 1456 Fourth Street, Berkeley, (510) 384-4686; www.gallerysam.com. Open by appointment.

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When three moms—Rosanna Sosa-Payne, Laura Juarez, and Ines Tisker—opened Lucciola Children’s Bookstore this past December, they wanted to create a welcoming space where mothers would feel comfortable hanging out and kids would feel at home between rows of books. From the corner table covered with games and puzzles to the baby-changing table in the bathroom, Lucciola has met its family-friendly goal.

Lucciola means “firefly” in Italian, a name the owners chose to represent the inner light and imagination they see in children. But the name also reflects the international nature of this store where, next to the usual assortment of Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket, you can find story books in French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. And Sosa-Payne says they’re now beefing up the Arabic section. Lucciola also hosts weekly lessons and story times in Spanish, as well as readings in other languages every “Fabulous Friday.” Family Night, the first Thursday of every month, features stories, songs, and crafts.

“We know that being an immigrant is hard,” says Rosanna Sosa-Payne, who hails from Argentina. “All immigrants feel that way. We’re happy to be here, love it here, but we also want to share what we brought from home. We see a lot of immigrant grandmothers coming in, looking for books to tell their grandchildren about their home countries.”

Lucciola Children’s Bookstore, 3980 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, (510)-652-6655.

Faces of the East Bay