Grant St. bustling again, a shop at a time

Jeanenne Petri owns Westside Stories with her husband Joe

By Amber Rinard
and Dallas Taylor
Bengal News West Reporters
          Grant Street is not just a street, but its own little community.

When you walk down the street, you can smell all the different ethnic foods, hear the sounds coming from the shops, and see the different nationalities and races coming together to shop and work in one area.

             On a two-mile long street, three small stores are starting to revive the area into what it used to be.  A neighborhood.

Westside Stories, Press Raw Food & Juice, and Sweet_ness 7 are rebuilding the neighborhood by establishing a relationship between each other and the customers that regularly shop there.

Jeanenne and Joe Petri, owners of Westside Stories, 205 Grant St., opened the bookstore in June four years ago. Since then, they have been working to enhance the neighborhood to make it a better place.

            The Petris originally chose to live on the West Side, because before they met with their real estate agent   they had coffee at Sweet_ness 7 Café, and loved it so much that they decided to buy whatever house was the closest to it.

            “We chose to open the shop in the neighborhood because we firmly believe that a strong retail corridor really helps to create a vibrant neighborhood,” Jeanenne said. 

Jeanenne Petri, on the value of a neighborhood bookstore:

            Her older customers tell her there used to be bustling shops up and down Grant Street. 

          “A lot of old timers will talk about what an interesting place it was to grow up, and it’s great to see that revival coming back,” Jeanenne said.

            Westside Stories works together with many of the other stores on the street to create a place that is special and valuable.

            Esther Pica, owner of Press Raw Food & Juice, 197 Grant St., is a friend of the Petris.

          “We all tend to look out for each other. Knowing that they’re next door, gives me a sense of comfort,” Pica said.

            The stores on Grant Street also benefit from each other.

 “What makes this little part of Grant Street work is that the bookstore and I, and even Sweet_ness 7, we all share the same customer base,” Pica said.

            Many people discover the bookstore by going to Press Raw Food & Juice, and others discover the restaurant by going to the bookstore.

            “We’re more of a destination,” Pica said. “You pick up your juices; check out the bookstore, you stop for a meal, where as if we were just here isolated by ourselves maybe people could rationalize not making a special trip just to go to one place.”

            Dan Moscov, Manager at Sweetness 7 Café, 220 Grant St., said  businesses benefit from the others' traffic and benefit the community by creating neighborhood jobs.  

            “It’s great for the community to have small businesses,” Moscov said.

            When walking down the street, you can feel the sense of community between the store and the customers. Customers will stop into these stores simply to talk and see what is going on. 

            There is a great vibe that comes from Grant Street. The customers support their local small businesses and the businesses work together to change the West Side into a great community. There are over 40 languages spoken in the area, yet they are all united as one.  

            “We like being someone’s neighborhood bookstore, where they can stop in and see if they can find something interesting to read or something that inspires them,” Petri said.