Fresh & Easy Looks at Redondo

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, headquartered in El Segundo, has considered opening a store at the former location at 1700 Pacific Coast Hwy., but no decision has been made, a company spokesman said.

"We're looking at the site; we're always looking," said Fresh & Easy's Brendan Wonnacott. "But that particular site.... No formal decision yet."

An application to transfer the site's liquor license from Bristol Farms to Fresh & Easy was posted in late July.

City staff members in the Building and Business License departments acknowledge that the company looked at the location. However, Kathy Thomen-Kay of the Finance Department said, "They have not applied for a business license."

Thomen-Kay and others at the city said they were told that Fresh & Easy considered the site and decided against it.

The building went up in 1955 and was christened the Plush Horse Inn in 1960. The Plush Horse had two restaurants, one a large steakhouse and the other a coffee shop called the Plush Pony.

Starting in 1980, several other businesses occupied the building. First came a club called Annabelle's, then the original Chez Melange. The Palos Verdes Inn was there for a year or two, followed by Renaud's, the Strand, Club Caprice, and finally Bristol Farms, which lasted from 2000 to 2010.

Fresh & Easy has stores at Rosecrans and Redondo avenues in Manhattan Beach and at Palos Verdes Drive North and Western Avenue in the Harbor City area.