Pampering Your Pet in Mission Valley
Plus: Odyssey Training Center's Journey, Barracruda's Culinary Experience at Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market, and Enjoying Kiko's Seven Seas Soup
The figures don’t lie. More and more Americans own pets, and based on the growing amount of money spent on pet-related items and services, it’s clear we love to pamper our furry family members. The latest figures show that our devotion to pets is big business. According to one internet source, 70% of Americans now own a pet, and in 2021 they spent 123.6 billion dollars on them.
So, considering these facts, it’s no surprise that the new Pet Market & Spa just opened up at Friars Mission Center in Mission Valley (right next door to Ralph’s supermarket). As advertised on their web site, this business offers “Quality health and wellness options for your pet,” marketing itself as “a new destination to pamper your fur babies.”
Being an enthusiastic pet owner, I recently paid a visit to Pet Market & Spa to check out what kind of services and products they provide. While there, I was lucky enough to speak with the owner of the business—Alex—who filled me in on the details of her new establishment.
As explained on her website, Alex says that “everything that makes up the Pet Market & Spa is inspired by the profound love I have for my "kids", who include 3 dogs (Dash, Portia and Madison) and 2 cats (Niko and Simba), and the challenges I experienced with the lack of options and services available for my kids which I felt either didn't exist or didn't meet my expectations.” The business’s mission is defined by…”quality options, superior service, personalized attention, and an experience to look forward to.”
Pet Market & Spa offers Full Spa (grooming services) and Bath and Blow Dry—you can click here for all the grooming service details, along with rates. As part of this grooming, your pets can take advantage of Pawdicures and Spawdicures, to include nail coloring, nail trim and buff, paw pad moisturizer, mud baths, as well as a good old fashioned flea and tick bathing. What pet wouldn’t enjoy such pampering?
Pet Market & Spa also offers food and treats for your pets. In addition to finding major brand dog and cat food on the shelves, it plans to stock premium preservative and grain free food options, along with natural health remedies. You will also find Pawganic Treats, which claims to provide a “Natural option for your pet.” Pawganic Living is a local company known for handcrafted dog treats and specially baked items. The Pawganic treats that were on display looked very intricate, interesting and, in fact, delicious--like something that might have come from a local bakery. I could see how they would be used as positive and healthy reinforcement to reward that well-behaved dog.
There are also cat/dog clothing items and accessories available for purchase. While browsing the shelves I saw an attractive Padres themed dog vest that all dogs in San Diego should be required to wear during baseball season.
Pet Market & Spa is currently conducting a soft opening of the business, but the official grand opening is scheduled for Saturday December 3 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. At this event, lucky customers can expect such things as doggy bags provided to VIPS (very important pets), swag bags provided to pet parents, hors d’oeuvres and beverages, and PUP-arazzi to capture all the great moments that matter.
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The Linda Vista Update wishes Alex and her Pet Market & Spa the best of luck in this business venture.
Join the Journey at Odyssey
A popular Linda Vista business has recently undergone major changes in its ownership and mission. Odyssey Training Center, now under the ownership of Ashley Rodriguez, is still the place to go in the community if you are looking for instruction in martial arts, but the business (located next to Skateworld off of Linda Vista Road) has expanded its mission to include a wider variety of physical conditioning activities. The mission has also been revised to reflect a desire to appeal to current and prospective students who want to experience martial arts and physical conditioning as part of an overall journey through life that encourages positive growth.
As explained by Rodriguez, Odyssey Training Center--formerly Casper Ju Jitsu Academy—wants to reflect the concept that training in the martial arts is a long journey, just like the journey of life. As implied by the name Odyssey, she emphasizes that the purpose of those intertwined journeys is to grow and do better. She believes that being a student at Odyssey Training Center will make that life journey more productive.
Activities at Odyssey Training Center include not only training in Ju Jitsu but also Muay Thai, kickboxing, yoga, High Intensity Interval Training, and a Boot Camp class which offers strength, cardio, and functional training.
Classes and individual training session take place all day from 6:00 am to 7:30 pm.
As a Navy veteran, Rodriguez wants the Odyssey Training Center to be a place that is seen as welcoming to the San Diego veteran community. She and her business partners/fellow instructors, who are Navy and Marine Corps veterans, have established a support group for veterans and active duty personnel and see the value of training as a way of addressing PTSD concerns. She likes the fact that Odyssey is located so close to military housing and hopes to see more active duty military stopping by to become Training Center members. In fact, Odyssey currently has a special going on for active duty military and First Responders that involves 3 months of free instruction once they buy a Gi (training outfit) or gloves.
Rodriguez, who has a Black Belt in Ju Jitsu, also wants Odyssey Training Center to be seen as a family place, “a place where everyone can come and join the journey, whether martial arts or fitness.” She currently has a Kid’s program for children aged 3 to 12. As part of a current promotion, kids who sign up now can receive free instruction through February with purchase of a Gi. And she has long had women’s group classes which, she says, serve to motivate and mentally support everyone in these classes.
Rodriguez emphasizes that Odyssey Training Center is not just about attending a workout and going home. She and her instructors, who include former owner Ron Casper, also offer nutritional and personal fitness advice, hoping to make the Center a positive, more motivating place to be for the entire family.
In the future, she would like to talk to local schools and businesses about setting up scholarships that would allow deserving kids to receive martial arts instruction and get the opportunity to spend time around the positive atmosphere of the Training Center.
As mentioned by Craig Brown, one of the Odyssey Training Center partners/instructors, “We want to give back to the community, while making this a family-oriented environment.”
Another partner/instructor, Wayne Hawkins also added, ”We offer a friendly, family environment. We’re here not just for Ju Jitsu and fitness, but to help improve your life.”
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If you want to learn more about what Odyssey Training Center has to offer, please visit their web site here.
Barracruda Offers a Culinary Experience
Latest at the Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market
One of the newest food vendors at the Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market caught our collective eye and taste buds a couple weeks ago. Barracruda offers delicious items like ceviche and tacos, along with a tasty beverage. We tried their vegetarian taco, served with soy chorizo and potato, and it was outstanding.
As visually presented for hungry customers, their food items and beverage not only taste great, but possess an attractive aesthetic appeal.
Accordingly, we asked Barracruda owner Juan Saad-Quintana a few questions about his special products and why Farmers Market customers should stop by his booth to try an item or two. Here is what he had to say:
—Can you describe what your business is all about?
Barracruda is a Mexican rooted, globally inspired culinary experience that we take our customers on by way of our ceviche, aguachile, and steamed taco experience.
—How long has Barracruda been in business?
Barracruda has been in business for 3 months
—What makes your business/food so special or appealing?
We fuse spices from other countries that we've been inspired by and pair them with our food to get a full spectrum of our world yet still keeping our Mexican heritage alive.
—What menu items do you offer at the Farmers Market?
Barracruda offers a variety of food but our most popular menu items are our ceviche, aguachile, and steamed tacos.
—Can you tell us a little about the drink you offer?
The drink we offer is a "hibiscus refresher" we infuse with hibiscus, lavender, basil, orange, mint, and rosemary. We let it simmer for 24 hours on low heat to extract all its flavor and let the ingredients get to know each other to create a refreshing drink that keeps you wanting more.
—What do you offer for vegetarians/vegans?
Barracruda wants to create the same experience for all palates and taste buds but for vegans and vegetarians we offer the exact same food just substituted items for example our fish ceviche instead of using fish we use hearts of palm and jicama. We want all our customers to go through the same culinary experience and to feel welcomed by us.
—Any other messages you have for Linda Vista residents/Farmers Market visitors?
Come by our Barracruda tent and let the Crudo boys take you on a culinary experience you've never had before, LET IT CRUNCH!
Try Kiko’s Delicious Seven Seas Soup
Steve and I recently both came down with bad colds at the same time. Negative for COVID, but sore throats, coughing, sneezing, the works. We tried all the remedies, cough medicine, aspirin, Vicks VapoRub, Nyquil, and nothing was working. It was difficult to eat.
The normal thing to do when one is sick is to have Gramma make some of her delicious chicken noodle soup. That always works, right? Well, what if you don’t have a Gramma, and you don’t eat meat? What you do is head over to Kiko’s food truck, at the intersection of Friars Road and Via Las Cumbres, and order a large container of their famous Seven Seas soup.
This soup, priced at $15.00, is in a delicious rich deep tomato broth and contains such delicacies of the sea as shrimp, scallops, mussels, white fish, calamari, octopus and clams. And maybe other things that I just didn’t recognize. If you want more of a kick to it, add one of the many spicy condiments available.
The large container was more than enough for both of us. I always take the mussels and trade for the octopus which frankly grosses me out. The soup also comes with corn or flour tortillas or tortilla chips if you wish.
Well, soon after eating the rich steaming hot soup, we started feeling better. Of course, Seven Seas Soup doesn’t cure the common cold, but it does offer some temporary relief.
This food truck has a a number of other great food values. We have reviewed them before when we talked about tacos in Linda Vista, but their menu is very extensive. They have all kinds of ceviche, tacos of every kind of fish, tostados, spicy octopus, smoked fish, oysters, burritos, shrimp cocktail, and other menu items to numerous to mention. They also have fish soup and shrimp soup and will often give you a free sample of fish soup while you wait for your order. The Yelp reviews of this place are great. Give it a try the next time you are feeling a little under the weather. Or anytime, for that matter! I’m sure you will be pleased with the prices and the quality of the food.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We wish all of our LV Update readers a Happy Thanksgiving.
The Linda Vista Update will take Thanksgiving Week off and return for your reading pleasure on Thursday December 1.
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