Three businesses stand out in Garden Grove for their beauty and were acknowledged recently by the city.
Driving by or going into the businesses, it's easy to see why they were honored for beauty, because they each have landscaped their buildings with small trees, palms and succulents and/or have used water-wise plants and ground covers.
In a word, they are “beautiful” and pleasant on the eyes.
Three businesses stand out in Garden Grove for their beauty and were acknowledged recently by the city.
Driving by or going into the businesses, it's easy to see why they were honored for beauty, because they each have landscaped their buildings with small trees, palms and succulents and/or have used water-wise plants and ground covers.
In a word, they are “beautiful” and pleasant on the eyes.
Winners are: Misa Restaurant, 13345 Euclid St., in the small business category; Big Ron's Auto Body and Paint, 12781 Nelson St., in the medium-sized business category; and Souplantation, 5939 Chapman Ave., in the big business category.
Misa, a fine Japanese cuisine restaurant, is a new facility that is family-owned and open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday. The restaurant offers items such as Halibut sashimi covered in special sauce, as well as misa rolls and other delicacies.
For landscaping, the restaurant has small juniper trees, surrounded by succulents in pots all along the driveway going back into the parking area where they have small black lanterns to light the way in the evening; in the front, there are a variety of plants with delicate-looking palms and succulents in various colors, making the restaurant very appealing from the outside.
Big Ron's was formerly a vintage house that needed paint and had cars waiting for repair that could be seen from the street through a chain-link-type fence, but now it's a very modern and up-to-date building, with a surrounding cinder-block wall that shields the vehicles from the street, housing close-to the entire block along Nelson at that location and it's eye-catching, especially knowing the before and after.
They have done a great job of renovating and modernizing their facility and landscaping it as well, with some small palms, pampas grass plants and succulents; they've really done a nice job; it's easy to see why they were chosen as one of the three winning businesses.
Souplantation has been around since the 1970s. The Garden Grove location is one of 112 locations in 15 states and is now one of the few open for breakfast on Sunday mornings. The restaurant serves an extensive salad bar buffet-style menu with fountain drinks, muffins, breads, soups, desserts and fresh fruit.
Most of the Souplantations are in Southern California, with the idea of the restaurant originating from a bartender in El Cajon.
Their facility has always been an oasis of scrubs, ferns and other landscaping in the middle of a black-top parking lot that houses many other businesses but none that are landscaped. Souplantation has feathery ferns surrounding the entrance off Chapman where the entrance is located. It feels peaceful just walking up to the door.
Through the Garden Grove Business Beautification program, which is part of the annual Garden Grove PRIDE program, the three local businesses were awarded the “Business Beautification Awards.”
The program honors the best-kept homes and businesses, as well as the best water-wise home and business in the community.
Much of the success of the program depends on volunteer judges who select the businesses to receive the awards; the judges take two weeks to select the most attractive businesses in their assigned zone.
This year, there were 10 nominations per zone, then the Garden Grove city staff chose the top three out of each category of small, medium, and large businesses, which is based on the number of employees working in the businesses.
After that, the competition was put online for the public to vote for their top business in each category.
Winners will be honored at the 40th annual Garden Grove Pride Awards reception Monday, May 20, in the Community Meeting Center at 11300 Stanford Ave.
The Business Beautification program is designed to individually recognize local businesses and business owners for their efforts to maintain and elevate the attractiveness of Garden Grove’s business community.
