Santa Monica’s Own Grocery Dynasty Remains
a Major Presence After 50 Years
Mirror staff
Last year, when
James Peyton went to work part-time at The Farms, the grocery store on
Montana Avenue at 21st Street in Santa Monica, he was following a
time-honored family tradition.
His great-grandfather, Ralph McGuire, founded Fireside
Market on Montana in the 1940s. His grandfather, Mike McGuire, who
owned and operated a tennis shop, Up Your Alley, in Tustin, eventually
took over Fireside, where all the McGuire offspring worked at one time
or another. Some years later, McGuire and Victor Manes, head of the
Fireside meat department, founded The Farms. Mike's son and James’
uncle, Sean McGuire, manages The Farms’ grocery store, while Manes
concentrates on the meat and deli departments.
As Montana, a quiet neighborhood shopping area, was
gradually transformed into a chic, upscale enclave, the other
independent grocery stores, such as Miller’s, shut down to make way
for boutiques and antique stores, but Fireside and the Farms continued
to prosper.
Several years ago, faced with a steep increase in
rent, Mike McGuire closed Fireside Market and, some months later,
opened Brentwood Farms in the Brentwood Mart. This summer, he sold his
Mart lease to Bristol Farms.
The trail that Ralph McGuire cut fifty years ago has
led his son, grandson and great grandson to one of the few remaining
independent grocery stores on the Westside. A half-century run in any
business is unusual these days, but the McGuires seem ready, willing
and able to go another 50 years.
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