John S.
Yelp
I'm about to knock your socks off.
Did you know that Our Friend used to own this place? I did not, but I knew he had some stake in the formerly across-the-street New Santa Clara Market (RIP), and then, after that place closed, I saw that this former beauty salon had become a market, and I further noticed that it had Santa Clara in its name. Could it be? No, not that first time, but the second time, I walked in, and whose perfectly coiffed hair did I see before I even saw his face as he sat behind the counter talking to one of his friends/employees? That's right, Our Friend!
This was more than a decade ago. I would continue to come inside, and when I no longer saw Our Friend, I asked the most familiar of the less familiar guys about him, and Our Friend had apparently moved back to Palestine to get married. Married? I asked. Did his wife die? No, the guy told me, and that strange experience hung in the air and my mind from sometime between 2012 and 2014 until July 2, 2025.
What happened on July 2, 2025? you ask?
Sorry, I can't really tell you. But I'll give you a hint.
I found out (from a very reliable source, but I can't reveal his identity until I review his place of employment [review upcoming]) that Our Friend is back in the United States! Sadly, he no longer lives in San Francisco or in the Bay Area, but that question about his wife has a simple but confusing answer. He did go back to get married. And his wife didn't die. Here it is. Are you ready?
Our Friend has four wives. I'm not exaggerating, lying, or casting aspersions. They all know about one another, but they live in different houses. So Our Friend maintains four households, as well as sundry businesses.
But back to Santa Clara Natural Organic Market.
At first, the whole "natural organic" part of the name was a marketing ruse. It felt like a nicer looking version of New Santa Clara Market, with some leafy greens thrown in for good measure. But over the years, it did turn into more of an organic market.
This may have been the first place I ever saw crates of La Croix in a store; I wondered why they didn't bother to unpack them and put them in displays, but I have since been shown the error of my ways by dozens (if not hundreds) of corner stores and gas-station convenience stores across the nation. If you stack them, Millennials will purchase them.
The shining jewel of this place is its gorgeous stained-glass sign. This is a remnant from its days as a beauty salon. It made more sense for that, but it still looks amazing. I wonder how the original owner of the beauty salon or whoever put up that sign feels about its having been repurposed as a corner-store sign.
It's a little bit expensive, but which corner store isn't these days? It's absurd that they put stoplights at this corner; I wonder whether that has affected this place in any way.
Does Our Friend still own it? I'll have to ask my source. Stay tuned.