Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:00

People call it the cheers of Huntington Beach. Uh because it's it's just everyone knows your name. I know mostly everybody's name that walks in there. So who's the norm? Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

And we're back with another episode of Unlocking Huntington Beach. What's going on? My name is Lane Stone. I'm with my co-host, Amber Doherty, and we have a special guest today. Now, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can probably guess who our special guest is. But if you're listening on the podcast forums, we're going to give you a couple clues, and you can guess while you're driving, and then we'll get into a really good conversation.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Okay, so our special guest today has been recognized by the Anaheim Ducks Hall of Heroes. She has organized adrenal cancer awareness and fundraising events for the Adrenal Cure Collective and was just recently Huntington Beach Chamber Honored Best of Huntington Beach for 2025.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Okay. Now, who is our esteemed, awesome, amazing guest today?

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Suzanne of Corner Market. Hi, everybody. Thank you for having me. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

My head is so big. I'm watching everyone back outside the door.

Awards and Giving

SPEAKER_00 1:10

I think you're gonna be just fine. But it's like there's something to be said when we're talking about like your philanthropic efforts, your Anaheim Ducks Hall of Heroes, your chamber honors, your honories, and now also a cookbook on the way. Very exciting. That's so cool. So um when you get these awards or when you're honored like this, like what it does it mean something to you, or just like is it just like, you know, I'm just going about my day and that's cool I have it, but I'm just gonna keep continuing.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

It means so much to me. And the what I've always said to everybody is that I would be remiss if I didn't do a lot of the philanthropic things that I do there because I have such a great audience and people always want to join in. So somebody made this analogy and they said, You're the shiny penny. Everybody wants to come and be around that and be around, you know, what's the light. And so if I can just be the centerpiece and be like, hey, let's raise money for this charity or do something for these people, like during the fires, it was amazing what we did for collections on the fires. I mean, we had to rent space and trucks, and so I think it means a lot the fact that even though it's just this tiny little place, it's making a big impact.

A Century Corner

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, and let's talk about this tiny little place. I was reading that this tiny little place is turning a hundred years old, or is it already a hundred years old this year?

SPEAKER_02 2:23

There's there's some discrepancy on the on the year. Uh uh now I was told it's over a hundred. Over a there is a hitching post that's right outside the market. If you go by the market and see it that they tied the horses up. No, right next to the you know where the dogs are always at on Sunday morning? Yeah, they actually tied the dogs up on the hitching post, but it says 1908.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

1908, wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

So that's the hitching post. But the building itself, there's actually a lot of you know, history of that it was the market for a uh encampment that was there. So there's a couple different years that it was, but it's old.

Buying the Market

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That's trust me, it's old. A hundred years old. I think it's at least a hundred years old. Yeah, 100 plus years old, and that's amazing. But what what drew you when you're looking for space at the time that to that corner market?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

I was on vacation and we were looking for um a place to get just some snacks and things like that. And so we were walking and we walked past it, and I got this like feeling. You ever get that like, oh my gosh, like gut feeling? Just this like weird something was incredible about this building. And I went inside and I actually said to the cashier, I'm gonna give you my business card. And if the owner is ever looking to sell, I would love to talk to her. And I never heard anything, and then I went back. I lived in Arizona at the time, and I was on a website called BizBy Sell, which does businesses, and up popped a picture of the patio because it's all non-disclosure, so nobody wants to, you know, you're not supposed to disclose what the business is. And I was like, I know that patio. And and I called the broker, and within like four hours, we were done. It was sold.

Community Vision

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Wow, it was you knew right away. But thanks for the call, though. I gave you my card. Why aren't you calling it? But at least it meant to be. So that was really cool. Uh, when you first opened up and you were envisioning the space, like, is it basically what it is today, 10 years later, as what you thought it was gonna be before you opened up, or have you made modifications, or like where what it's exactly what I thought it was gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Because when I opened, I thought, oh, I just want kids to come in after school. I want it to be a centerpiece on the weekends, I want it to be a part of the community. And literally from the second we opened the doors, it's been that. We opened on July 4th. So that was everyone kept saying, You have to be open by July 4th. And I was like, why? What's July 4th? Because I didn't live around here. So I was like, I had no understanding. And now I was like, wow, now I really enjoyed it. It was it was unbelievable. What an anniversary to have. Yeah. So that's kind of when we're hoping to have the cookbook up and out and running by July 4th. On July 4th. That's cool. Yeah, so it'll be a little anniversary.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

And what's funny is probably 10 years ago when the bikes were rolling up, uh, it was probably just regular bikes, and now they're all e-bikes that are all. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Even in a short period of time, 10 years isn't that long, but things changed. Oh, a lot. Like the bike parade used to be just like a few bikes, now it's like 30,000 bikes.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

And yeah, it's it's wild. Is there anything that you think that's still left for the corner, like the um the corner market and like things that you think that evolution. Yes, the evolution of where it like a future vision of what you still like to do, or is it everything? You just said it's everything you thought it was gonna be 10 years ago, but 10 years from now.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

I think there's always room for growth and there's always room to add. And that's the cool part about the space is that it it does so many things. It's only 500 feet. That building is teeny, tiny, but we maximize it and we do a lot of things out of there. So I always think I'm always thinking my brain doesn't shut off, so which is why I'm always doing events and fundraising and because I just love to do different things and I like to keep it fresh and for people to be like, hey, I wonder what's going on down there this weekend. So I think there's a lot of room for growth, and I think there's room to even do some other spaces, I'm hoping down the road. So I kept my eye on a few things and lunch and beans. That's for another podcast. Is this an exclusive? Is this an exclusive? Yeah, this isn't exclusive. Anything you want to enable, quite frankly. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

I'd love to see you expand.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Yeah. Nothing big, but we've got some ideas, and I think it's gonna probably by the end of the year we should have something to come back and do another podcast about.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Is it gonna be on a corner?

SPEAKER_02 6:19

I guess it actually is.

Feels Like Home

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Oh it's gotta stay on the corner. Yeah, that's cool. You'd have to answer that, but that was cool. Um okay, so for those that maybe are unfamiliar and haven't uh, you know, been to the market yet, uh can you describe it without using the words coffee or pastries or uh goodies? And just like what what would somebody what would be the feeling and the experience that somebody would feel like when they're easy?

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Like you're not even done talking, and I'm like, I know what I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

People call it the cheers of Huntington Beach. Oh, because it's it's just everyone knows your name. I know mostly everybody's name that walks in there. So who's the norm? Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Guest Chefs Stories

SPEAKER_02 7:05

But there's just uh there's this feeling of home. And that and that's what everyone always says to me, you cook like my mom or you cook like my grandma, and you make it feel like home.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

So well, one thing that you did that was really cool too was I remember there were like neighbors that were doing home cooked meals and they were selling them like was it like once a week or something like that that they would do like out of the market? Out of the market, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

I always had guest chefs and that's another thing that I'd like to bring back. That was a little bit closer to pre-COVID, but we had a lot of people come in and I would say they would always say, Oh, I would I always wanted to do it's hard, but like restaurants, food operation is not for the weary, not for the weak. It's just a tough grind. And I always love when people come in and say, I wish I could do uh, you know, a night. So I let all these kind of neighbors come in and just be a guest chef. And I used to interview them and give their story, and they would do something from the heart. It was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

And that's what I think of when he said the word home is I thought of like little things like that in the history of what that market's been and what the some of the stories have been told from there. Like even my friend's uh mom, I think, cooked something and he's they're of Indian descent, and I've never had like yeah, and Hemel, Hemel's my like hi Hemel. Um and I've never had like a legitimate, authentic, home-cooked Indian cuisine before, you know, and like that gave an opportunity for us to try something like that.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

And they invited me to their home prior to cooking there so that I could taste it and get and it was that was exactly it. It was like what a friendship that was bloomed out of you know just doing something simple and that's allowing her to come in and do a dream that she wanted to be able to cook in a you know a commercial kitchen and share it with everybody. So it was really neat.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Well, we also have time to talk a little bit about your cookbook too. Sure. Uh what what inspired you to create a cookbook? What is it gonna be like? When is it gonna be available? It's not like Fourth of July.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I'm hoping Fourth of July. Okay. Um but uh it's not just a cookbook. I've done it more like it's kind of unique that it's a little bit of an autobiography that the recipes kind of coincide with parts of my life, and every recipe has a meaning and a story behind it. So I've even done a music playlist to play while you're doing certain recipes, and I've got dedications to people, and so I'm hoping to be able to, you know, make it something very unique, not just a book that you're gonna have in your kitchen, but you're gonna have it on your nightstand and be like, I wanna read that story about this, you know. And then in the morning get up and make something or so it'll be a little bit different than your traditional cookbook.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

That's awesome. That's awesome. And then when we I'm sure you grow like hat living on 19th Street, right? I grew up on 11th Street. We all have like personal stories. I think that's really cool about Shamarcus, who is like there's probably a million of them, and you probably get tired of hearing all million of them.

COVID Lifeline

SPEAKER_03 9:39

But I could never hear never hear enough. For me, it was during COVID when I was out of a job for a short period, and it was a dark time for a lot of people. I wasn't married yet, I was alone, just me and Samantha, and I would walk and get coffee, and I was part of the early morning crew. I'm sure you remember we'd be lined up out front waiting for the city. Samantha was the first one in every day. And you know, just getting that cup of coffee and the warm way you embraced the community, and it was like it became like the norm for me, and it brought so much joy in a time that was kind of a bummer for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

So and I think that's why people liked it. It was a way to get out of the house during COVID. It was I had people that were there breakfast, lunch, and dinner just because they were home and they were working, and yeah, but uh, you know, just being able to even just come and grab a cookie, they were just happy to be out and about. So it meant a lot to a lot of people, and it meant a lot to me to be able to people to come back and say, You were like my savior to there's a saying that I would love to send to you guys that somebody said about the time of what COVID meant to them. And when I even think about it, you know, it brings tears to my eyes. They were just saying, you know, it was a light in a really dark time. So that's what you felt too.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

That's literally what I was telling Lane when we were talking about the pod. Yeah. Yeah.

Local Vendors Picks

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And even for the 10 years that you've been here now, like you you feel like a true and you probably feel like a local, like a honey to beach local. Yeah, you are, and you are, you are a true angel because you've probably done more for the community in the last 10 years than the average local has been here for over 30 years. Yeah, right. So um, when you think about even some of the vendors that you feature in your store, and like they're they're all local, right? And and um is there ever was there ever a pitch, or do you get pitches all the time from non-locals? And what do you have to turn? What are some things that you have to turn down or what or what makes it to your store as well, too?

SPEAKER_02 11:27

I feel like it's whatever, and I said this a long time ago, which I always feel like people are like, oh wow, but if I like it, I feel like I know my customers will like it. I feel like I really have that kind of connection with everyone that comes in there that if I bring something in, it's truly something that is that inspires me, or it's something that I truly love, I do turn people down only because I just know what is gonna go and what's not gonna go there. By now, I I do. I've made some miss some hiccups, but you know, it's it's really just been a cohesive place of me liking something and then the customers come in. So when people come in and they're like, oh, you know, they're so excited to see something, I'm like, okay, yeah, I did the right thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

So are there any like faux pas or like do's and don'ts when it comes to like a corner market? Uh like like don't I don't know, I can't even think of any, but like like like you know secret menu? No, yeah, maybe secret menu or like or don't uh like how know what you want by the time you get up to the counter, like I don't know what it's like trying to think from personal experience.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

I think I was such a regular that I just always knew. I think for someone that hasn't gone before, looking up on Instagram and just kind of checking out Yeah Well, you know what was funny for a long time we didn't have a menu up.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

We just kind of did it because I was doing specials, so people would come in and they were so turned around, maybe like looking like on the ceiling for the menu, like what is going on here? So now we have the menus up, so now it's a little bit more better streamlined. But during COVID, we weren't that was the other thing. It was very hard to get supplies. It was hard to get anything, like boxes or bags or meat, like the most random stuff would be like the and the common um answer was, oh, it's out on the boats. So, you know, it was we weren't sure what we were gonna have like the following week. So to have a menu up kind of felt kind of strange to keep saying, like, oh, we're out of that and we're out of that.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

And you can just go to the middle of the street and look out towards the water and see those boats. Yeah, exactly. That's very frustrating.

This or That Game

SPEAKER_01 13:18

It's just right there. I need my pastry bags. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

All right, well, I we want to play like a little this or that game.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Okay, okay. And so we'll ask a couple questions, and so we'll start with uh hot coffee or iced coffee? Hot Americano. Hot Americano, okay. Cook at home or eat out. Eat out. Summer or winter? Winter. Croissant or sourdough? Croissant. A Cranish or a cookie? It's like Sophie's choice. Yeah. A cookie. Okay, perfect. Do you have anything you want to try?

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Or like Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Morning person, night person.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Now I'm a morning person. I was gonna say, you kind of have to be. Now I do. When we had um when I lived in Arizona, we were a wholesale company, and so I was I had to be a night person. Okay. So to flip-flop those hours was a little difficult. Which do you like better though? Would you say I do like then honestly, I like the night time because I do miss having my mornings to get up kind of slowly. Now it's like it's a mad dash because I'm really late, which is another which is if you want to know um something that's not good, is that I'm always perpetually late. If you ask anybody that knows me, I'm always late.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

So not here, she was 30 minutes early. Well, she was 30 minutes early, everybody. Not 30. But that's that's funny. Okay. Well, um, for those that don't maybe don't know you so well, like if you weren't at the market, like what would you be doing?

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Like, I love to walk. I used to love to run until I hurt my back, but now I do love to do walking along the beach, is just to walk in that little spot of Huntington and see the pier as you're walking. I mean, there's nothing better than that view.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

You definitely can't do this in Arizona by the way.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

No, no, there's no water in Arizona. Uh I love Napa. I'm a big wine drinker. Can I say that? Oh, yeah, yes, please.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Do we have a bottle?

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Yeah, I was gonna say I'm I'm big, big Napa fan. Um traveling. I love to now I now I'm able to travel a little bit. I've kind of been closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, I give myself that time off and and do a little traveling.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

So yeah, well, if you ever find yourself like in Sonoma County outside of Napa and you're like in the Forestville area, let us know because our business partners have a property there and they're we're all we're all winos on this team. Yeah, yeah. Even my aunt and uncle have a uh winery in Solvang. So yeah, so like we'll just all the way to the gingerbread houses up there.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Oh yeah, yeah. I actually tried to get a custom um, I was too late, but I wanted a gingerbread house that was shaped like the corner market.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

But it is funny, sometimes people come in and they go, What time do you get here? And I go, Well, it depends upon how much wine I drank. And I see some people are like, Okay. So I'm like, no, it's just like my starting joke. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

And uh for the menu that you serve, it's it's seasonal, right? And and it always changes. Yes, yes.

Pizza and Charity

SPEAKER_02 16:18

I have some standard stuff, but I love to do specials. I love to keep it kind of so I just have a woman that just started coming in. I have her come in and she makes um biscuits. So she was, you know, told me she's like the biscuit queen. I said, Well, all right, I've got to add some biscuits. So now I've got biscuits there. So just something change it up. What about pizza night? Is that gonna be that's so I did it last week? Um, I did it last week for I had donated to a charity event for STEM advantage. I donated a private pizza party and they raised so much money on the first one, they called me from there and said, Can we offer a second one? And they wanted to, you know, they'll just whatever however it would work for you to do. And so I did a second pizza party, and these ladies were so fun. And so it was pizza night is just a very unique little thing. People don't under at first they're always like, How does that work? What do you do? You have to pre-call, and yeah, so now it's it's become a thing. Everybody kind of always gets excited for pizza night.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Is there like a place where we can just follow your like charities? You know what I mean? Like if people love you and people like what follow and and probably contribute to a lot of what you're contributing to.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Is there so every year of well Christmas time? I always pick a charity. This year I checked the uh I picked the um Cal Fire Foundation because my son is a a firefighter now in Compton. And so I let him pick the charity this year. But every year I try to pick something for the entire winter. We promote and we raise funds and we do something really special. And then during the year, I try to just pick, you know, if it's Mother's Day, we'll do we did uh work uh working wardrobes, we've done College Children's Home, um, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. We we just always pick, you know, something that's kind of indicative of whatever we're kind of working on, or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

I was just we just saw the pet adoption too there over the weekend.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Oh, I do a ton of pet adoption stuff. Yeah, I have two dogs. I have a corgi and a shihutsu, and they're the loves of my life.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

So do you take the corgi down to like the corgi beach day when all there's like a big thing? He doesn't do well. We would not activity all I see here is just like thousands of wiggle butts on this.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

He just for whatever reason, he loves people, doesn't like other dogs. How funny? Yeah, he's a little he's a little odd with other dogs, and it's not fun. Because my like my he's gonna rip my arm off one day.

Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 18:29

He's just so aggressive. Yeah, that's awesome. Anything else before we wrap up here?

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Thank you, Suzanne. No, thanks you guys. Oh, wait. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

This was really fun. This was fun, thank you. Well, hopefully we can do another one, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:42

I know with your late breaking news.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Yes, I mean, we don't have to really post about it if we don't want to, but if this if we could say hey, they're finding maybe a second location on a corner somewhere coming soon, then that's enough of a teaser.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Yeah, it's a great teaser, and then I'll come back for that final reveal. We'd love that.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Well, thank you so much for watching, and we love doing this each and every week. So stay tuned for next week's episode of Unlocking Huntington Beach. You can find us at UnlockingHB on Instagram and YouTube. And I'll leave you with this. Do good, Huntington Beach deserves it.