Everybody’s business

Oh, grow up
Chico families will have a magazine tailored just for them with the publication of Growing Up Chico, set to debut this August.

MaryRose Lovgren, a mother, writer and contributor to this paper, has teamed up with Jenise Coon of Glow (the downtown maternity-and-more boutique) to launch the quarterly, free magazine that will include articles on topics of interest to pregnant women, parents to kids of all ages, grandparents and so on, along with an extensive, Chico-centric events calendar.

“It’s going to have a real Chico feel to it,” Lovgren said of the glossy magazine, which will be distributed in 50 locations.

Growing Up Chico is already distributing a free monthly e-mail newsletter (contact Lovgren at maryrose@growingupchico.com).

Shasta Parent, with much of its editorial copy centering on Redding, has dominated the local kid-mag market for years.

Its most recent challenger was the short-lived yet well-designed free publication Backyard, and I called one of its founders to ask whatever happened to that venture.

“We kind of took a sabbatical that’s been indefinite,” said Becky Milani, who started the magazine with friend Amy Gomersall and published every other month for a year through August 2001.

Passing Gashouse
Gashouse Pizza, which opened in Chico in 1978 and for many years took top honors in the News & Review’s Best of Chico Readers’ Picks, has new owners.

Charles and Jennifer Gower of Durham are in the process of buying the restaurant at 2359 The Esplanade.

Gashouse founder Duncan Govan is retiring, and Charles Gower, who had worked for Govan while a Chico State student in the 1980s, jumped at the opportunity to buy the building and the business.

“We’re going to keep everything [on the menu] the same and grow,” said Gower, who was ahead of the times back in the 1980s. “I was the one who started us on pesto pizza.”

Gower acknowledged that Gashouse is not the household name it once was and plans to boost advertising and marketing and even add a location in a year or so. “We want to get the word out,” he said. For example, Gashouse now does take-and-bake, too: news to me.

Gashouse, which in 1999 closed its original location on Park Avenue, subsequently expanded to include a restaurant in Scotts Valley owned by a friend of Govan’s.

Victor Victorianna?
Just a few weeks after opening a second location on Mangrove Avenue, the Victorianna antiques store is on the move.

This time, though, it’s due to problems with the building at 325 Broadway. Employees told passersby it was a mold issue.

The building is owned by Broadway Investors/Pete Giampaoli, and a call to Giampaoli’s office earned a return call from Dan Herbert, who manages the property.

“There was some water leaking into the building,” Herbert said, but everything’s OK now. “The tenant certainly could have stayed.” He said they have yet to look for a new occupant for the 4,000-square-foot space.

Told of Herbert’s contention, owner Cindy Dawson said her lawyer advised her not to talk about it, but “what they’re saying is not true.”

Victorianna’s new location won’t be ready for a few months, according to signs on the window, so the antiques are in storage for now.