Masatani’s Mkt

Back in the day mom n pop kinda shopping! Great Lil place to see the locals! Great tritip and linguica! Friendly service! Great place to get what u need!

The best Chorizo on the Planet and thick cut bacon you won’t find at vons. Knowledgeable and friendly staff. Ice cold beer and red oak firewood. Also pastries and fresh breads from Los Angeles stocked weekly. Hotdogs, pizza, cigarettes and lotto. They ‘ve got it. You can Pay your utility bills and buy a tri tip. Fresh sliced deli meats, they also have t-​shirts, sweaters, pinyatas, posters. This store has been in Guadalupe since the 1920s. Because. Its the best.

Ever wished you could go to the town of Mayberry and hang out with Aunt Bea, and Andy? I got to do just that, except Aunt Bea was Kim Masatani, and Andy was Harry Masatani. After chowing down on my breakfast at Nardo’s I decided to head over to the grocery store in town… Now this was not your typical store… it had the word, «Masatani» on the top… being third generation Japanese American, I figured that it was a Japanese last name… but how did such an old store end up being owned by a Japanese American in a small rural town? Little Tokyo, Gardena, no problem… but Guadalupe? I had to find out their story.
As I entered this old place, it had «history» written all over the place… the tile and the shelves looked as if there hadn’t been any changes since it had been here since the 1940’s? It looked and felt as old as this town… not in a bad way, but it was if I stepped back in time and got a glimpse of my past… since my grandfather also owned a drugstore in a town called Brawley, CA. It was like I was having an out of body experience being here. I’ve never known that much about my past or my grandparents place. I only heard that it was lost during the war when my grand parents and parents were taken to internment camps… so here I was living in the past like it was 1940 all over again… I asked the hispanic clerk if the store was still owned by Masatani… she said yes… I told her I thought it unusual to see a Japanese last name and wondered if I could talk to the owner… that’s when I met Kim… she was a spry little lady with a big smile and a twinkle in her eye. I found out that she also grew up in a town right next to Brawley… small world… and she and her family were at the same internment camp as my family and my wife’s family, Poston, AZ. I was about ready to go when she offered to have me talk to her husband, Harry, who was at their home… I was shocked that she would even ask me to go there since she did not know me from Adam… she insisted I go to their house… a big yellow house that was there forever too… she was so friendly and warm… man, this must be Mayberry… I wondered if they even locked their doors at night… it seemed like that kind of place… the funny thing about it was… it felt right… like I was just visiting with my aunt Kim and Uncle Harry.
The house is a block away and Harry was expecting me… we talked, he gave me the grand tour of his beautiful house and then took me to his favorite café in town… the Guadalupe Restaurant… I drove him over and we met his wife at the store… I got introduced to their son who is now running the place… and we ate lunch together and talked story about Guadalupe, how they returned from the internment camp to start over… how he and Kim actually met at UCLA after the war and married… and how he came back to where he was born and raised… in fact, he now lives a few houses from the house he grew up in! Amazing… Andy Griffith show in the flesh… he even showed me the now empty town jail… I’m wondering where Otis the town drunk was… hahaha…
what was supposed to be a quick stop to eat cactus and eggs at Nardo’s turned into Bob meeting Andy and Aunt Bea of Mayberry RFD… and leaving town 4 hours later… Huell Howzer would have loved this… I know I did… I give Masatani’s, Nardo’s, The Guadalupe Restaurant, and Harry and Kim Masatani a big 5 stars for making a complete stranger feel like family… pretty rare this day in age.
Need a break from life? Guadalupe is calling out to you!