Best season ever

It’s that time of year again, the beginning of what feels around here a bit like the first spring dew, promising another joyous few months ahead. Of what, you ask, do I speak? Best of Chico!

Each year around this time, the CN&R opens the readers’ polls. For me personally, that signals fun to come as I’ve overseen the “big reveal” issue almost every year since I started working here in 2006. There’s something magical about counting all the votes, seeing which businesses and service purveyors have snagged another win and which eked out enough votes to outbid their opponents. Here in the office, it’s a time of secrecy. The Editorial staff closes doors and talks in hushed tones so as not to tip off our counterparts in Sales. Then we send our minions out around town to gather juicy tidbits about all the first-place winners for our write-ups.

So, get out and vote for your faves (www.chicobestof.com). May the best of the best win!

A hop, skip and a jump A few downtown businesses are making some changes this month, moving locations to be a little closer to the inner action. The first, Live Life Juice Co., moved into its new shop at 220 Broadway—vacated in March by Sweet Cottage—at the beginning of August. Their previous spot, at 220 W. Sixth St., was admittedly off the beaten path. I remember trying to find it for the first time and driving right by, only to see the colorful carrot mural in my rearview mirror and turning around. There are new murals in the new space, which is in full swing. Best of luck to the Rasmussen sisters on this new chapter.

Speaking of Sweet Cottage, there is some news on that front as well. The shop closed in March, and its owner, Robin Rowe, announced then via Facebook that she’d spent 11 days in the hospital after being overwhelmed with sleep deprivation and stress. It seems she’s re-emerged reinvigorated, however, and, much to the delight of pie fans everywhere, has rejoined the market circuit. Find Sweet Cottage’s mobile cart at the Thursday Night Market and Saturday morning’s Chico Certified Farmers’ Market.

In other downtown move news, Envee Salon is ditching its Third Street digs for larger pastures at 152 E. Second St. (next to Peet’s Coffee). The salon will now have 10 hair stations and two treatment rooms in its new 1,700-square-feet space.

Closing time Bank of America customers on the Ridge will soon have to drive to Chico for all their in-branch needs. That’s according to a letter a Paradise reader shared with me that announced the closure of the Skyway location effective Nov. 14. Phone calls to the branch were not answered. A recent report by the Economist, however, indicates that BofA’s closure of financial center locations is part of a bigger shift toward online and mobile banking that’s taking the industry by storm. (Wells Fargo last month announced the closure of 450 branches by the end of 2018.)