The CicLAvia Route Through Pasadena Starts at This Year's Openings and Ends at Its Biggest Goodbye

On Sunday, November 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Colorado Boulevard closes to cars from Pasadena Avenue to Allen Avenue. Raymond Avenue also closes from Pacific Alley to East Dayton Street. That makes a 2.7-mile open street, and it runs past every Colorado Boulevard business on the city's summer list of new food and drink openings. If you start at the west end and head east, the openings come quickly at first, then spread out. The last block is a goodbye.

The city's August economic development update listed seven new food and drink businesses. Three of them are on Colorado Boulevard, and two of those are inside Old Pasadena. At the other end, the Colorado Hub is at 1778 E. Colorado Blvd. That is next door to 1770 E. Colorado, where Lucky Baldwin's Trappiste closed on August 1 to make room for a proposed housing tower. In between is Vroman's, now with new owners, and a Boston seafood company's first West Coast restaurant.

The Raymond Avenue start: an armory and a tea café

The western hub is the Memorial Park Hub at 145 N. Raymond Ave. That address belongs to the Armory Center for the Arts, which is housed in the 1932 California Guard Armory, right across Raymond from the Memorial Park A Line station. CicLAvia says each hub will have free water, ADA restrooms, first aid, basic bike repair, bike parking and pedicabs. If you're coming by train, this is where you get off.

A short walk south, at 45 N. Raymond Ave., nana's green tea opened on May 9. It is the company's first U.S. café that it runs itself. It opened in the spring, so it came before the summer group of openings. Still, it shows that matcha arrived in Old Pasadena early this year. The second matcha shop is a few blocks away.

Old Pasadena: where this summer's openings are

This summer's Old Pasadena arrivals sit in the first half mile east of Raymond. All of them are on the route or one turn off it.

The city called Whisk'd Pasadena's newest matcha shop in its September 15 newsletter, but it didn't give an opening date. According to the city's report, Milk Brew's drinks include versions made with corn milk and banana milk. Mammoth Coffee is the first franchise location for the Mammoth Lakes roaster. It sits on Fair Oaks just north of the boulevard, so it's an easy side trip from the closed street.

On a normal Saturday you'd be crossing traffic and looking for parking to try these places. On November 15 they are all about a ten-minute walk apart on a street with no cars. The Old Pasadena Management District and the Playhouse Village Association have both said they support the event, according to the city.

The middle: same names, new owners and a long-distance kitchen

East of Old Pasadena, the new arrivals spread out. The longtime anchors keep going with some changes.

At 600 E. Colorado Blvd., Carbon Health has signed up as an event-day partner. It is offering water, Liquid I.V., first aid and priority care.

At 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Vroman's Bookstore announced on September 24 that Robert Hoffman and his family will be the new owners. That ends more than a century of Sheldon family ownership. The store says Hoffman grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and went to Vroman's with his mother as a child. The deal also includes Book Soup in West Hollywood. For now the bookstore calls it "business as usual" and says chances to meet him will be announced in the coming months. Six weeks after the announcement, a car-free Sunday on the boulevard puts the bookstore in front of a lot of people at once.

At 927 E. Colorado Blvd., The Daily Catch held its ribbon cutting on July 16. The city's report calls the Sicilian-style seafood restaurant the Boston company's first West Coast location. It also says the restaurant has seafood shipped in from New England several times a week. It's the last of this summer's openings on the route, almost two miles before the east end.

At 985 E. Colorado Blvd., Strong Sports Gym plans to keep its store open and give short lessons on event day. As of September 26, CicLAvia had event-day specials listed from six Pasadena businesses. Businesses on the route have until Thursday, November 12 to send in the participation form for a free spot on the interactive map, subject to approval. There's a reason those businesses are interested. A UCLA Luskin study of a 2013 CicLAvia on Wilshire Boulevard found that businesses along the route saw sales go up 10 percent that day. For businesses that engaged participants directly, the increase was 57 percent.

The east end: the hub next to the closed pub

The route ends at the Colorado Hub, 1778 E. Colorado Blvd., close to Allen Avenue. One address west, at 1770 E. Colorado, Lucky Baldwin's Trappiste served customers near Pasadena City College for 15 years. It closed to the public on August 1. "It is with much sadness that we are closing our East Pasadena location," owner Peggy Simonian said. In his Local News Pasadena column, the writer remembered it as the go-to place to meet after work and one of the best places in the San Gabriel Valley to watch soccer.

The pub's site is part of a proposed mixed-use project at 1756–1776 E. Colorado Blvd. It's known as Colorado Crest. San Diego-based CPR Affordable Housing and Community Development is the applicant. Plans call for a seven-story building about 83 feet tall with 90 units. Eighty-eight would be affordable units, and two would be for managers. About 1,900 to 2,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space would face the boulevard, replacing four one-story commercial buildings. The East Colorado Specific Plan zone sets a 51-foot height limit. California's State Density Bonus Law allows the extra height. No construction timeline has been announced. As of August, the project was still described as proposed.

If you're looking for a pint at the end of the route, the original Lucky Baldwin's in Old Pasadena and Lucky Baldwins Delirium in Sierra Madre are both still open. The Old Pasadena pub is back near the start of the route, so you can finish your day where you began.

Logistics, especially if you live on the route

The street is car-free from 9 to 3, but the closure lasts longer than that:

• Streets closed to cars: 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m. Delivery drivers can't drive or park on the route during those hours.
• Parking: Banned on the route from 4 a.m. to 5 p.m., and cars will be towed. Driveways along the route will be blocked.
• Reimbursement: CicLAvia may pay back people who live or work right on the route up to $20 per vehicle for parking.
• Transit: CicLAvia lists the Memorial Park and Del Mar A Line stations as less than 0.1 mile from the route.
• Questions: A virtual community meeting about street closures and business opportunities is at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, October 15. Details are on the CicLAvia Pasadena event page.

Businesses on the route have their own deadlines with the city. Food permit requests are due October 9, and sidewalk canopy requests are due October 16. Anyone setting up outside has to leave 4 feet of clearance for ADA access, and nothing can go in the street. If you have a favorite shop between Pasadena Avenue and Allen, those deadlines will decide whether it has a table out front that Sunday.

If you'd like to warm up on foot before then, Walktober runs all month across the city with free walks and tours. On October 25, Pasadena Heritage will lead tours of Old Pasadena's south and north areas, which covers the west end of the route. Pasadena's sales tax went from 10.5 percent to 11 percent on October 1 under Measure ER, so your pastry receipt will look a little different from last summer's.

At Lexi Newman Team, we keep track of what opens and closes along the Eastside's main streets the way some people keep track of box scores. If you're out on Colorado on November 15 and spot a new storefront we missed, tell us. Connect with your real estate best friend, and we'll keep the list going.