Your Neighborhood Grocer

After decades of neglect, the rise of downtown LA is unmistakable. Loft conversions and the steady growth of cool boutiques and restaurants have set real estate prices rocketing. AGEIST noticed that among the pacemakers is Urban Radish, an organic, deli-style market that sees itself as much as a place of community as of commerce.

Driving its growth is former miles-accumulating, Blackberry-addicted business consultant, Keri Aivazis. Two years ago, she took a risk and sold the big house in which she raised her two children, and poured her investments into opening Urban Radish. The choice was unusual at that point in her life, she admits, but somehow appropriate.

“I’m not trying to rebel against establishment, but I’m certainly not thinking about my life in terms of the milestones of how people see people my age living,” she says. “I now live in one big open space above [fashionable restaurant] Bestia. I never would’ve envisioned at 47 years old I’d be living that lifestyle and being really happy.”

If she thinks about age at all, it’s not as something to rebel against, but to embrace. The integration of the skills she accumulated over the years and her true passion — food, community — have eased her transition into this new chapter. This is something we at AGEIST see a lot of: reinvention.

“I feel relevant here, because I’m the woman with all the food in the neighborhood,” she says. “If all I can achieve for the rest of my life is to maintain my business and have this social connectivity, then this is a great life.”