Why Brentwood Country Mart’s New Stores Matter

Walk through the courtyard at Brentwood Country Mart on any weekday afternoon and the fire pit is still there, ringed by the same wrought iron chairs it's had for years. Reddi Chick still runs its rotisserie the way it has since the 1970s, chicken into a paper bag, no menu to speak of because there's only one thing to order. But look past the courtyard toward the red barn storefronts on the south end and something has shifted. A French label that spent years testing pop-up shops at the Mart just signed a permanent lease. A London swim brand opened a shop a few doors down. An activewear line nobody outside a small circle had heard of a year ago put up signage where a different shop used to be.

None of this reads as unusual on its own. Retail centers turn over tenants constantly, and a shopping mart with this much foot traffic will always have a waiting list of brands wanting in. The three arrivals this year are part of a wider retail picture that includes the Montecito and Marin Country Marts.

The summer’s new arrivals

Start with what actually opened. Varley, the women's contemporary activewear brand, arrived at the Mart this summer, marking the label's first Los Angeles County store. Orlebar Brown, the London-based swim trunk maker, opened a shop of its own at the Mart around the same stretch of summer. Then in mid-August, Sézane opened its first permanent Los Angeles boutique inside a red barn storefront at 225 26th Street, Suite 52, closing out a run of temporary pop-ups that first appeared at the Mart back in May 2023 and, by most accounts, routinely stayed open longer than scheduled because local demand kept outrunning the lease terms.

Weeks after its Brentwood opening, Varley opened a store at Marin Country Mart in Larkspur on July 26, alongside its existing location at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. That detail is easy to skip past, but it puts the Brentwood opening in a wider retail context.

Three country marts, one owner

Brentwood Country Mart, Montecito Country Mart, and Marin Country Mart share an owner. J.S. Rosenfield & Co., the firm that has curated the Brentwood property since 2003, also holds the Montecito and Marin marts along with the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. Orlebar Brown and Varley both opened at Brentwood Country Mart this year.

What never left the block

The retail churn sits next to things that haven't moved in years, and that stability is doing more work than it gets credit for. Diesel Books, the Mart's longtime anchor bookstore, kept a steady run of author events through the season that never made headlines the way a new storefront does. Author Robinne Lee discussed her novel Crash Me on July 14. RJ Valldeperas appeared in conversation with Victoria Aveyard on June 23. Actress Christa Miller joined author Jaime Goodrich for an event on July 12. None of it shows up when you search for what's new at the Mart, but it's the layer that explains why longtime shoppers keep coming back even as the boutiques around them change hands.

A few blocks over, on Gretna Green Way, the Sunday farmers market has run year round, rain or shine, for longer than any of this year's new leases have existed. It's not glamorous, and it doesn't generate trade press the way a French label's permanent boutique does. But it's the fixed point that makes the rest of the churn feel like background noise instead of a disruption. Farmshop, founded in 2010 by chef Jeff Cerciello and still serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of the same barn-style building, functions the same way. The storefronts around it have turned over completely since it opened. Farmshop hasn't moved an inch.

That contrast, new brands cycling through while the food counter and the bookstore and the Sunday market stay put, is what actually defines the Country Mart right now. The turnover gives it a reason to show up in retail trade coverage. The parts that don't turn over are why people who live nearby still treat it as theirs.

September at the Mart

For anyone planning a weekend around it, the calendar right now leans toward families and evening programming. Toy Story screened as a free outdoor movie night on September 4; Finding Nemo is scheduled for September 11, with each running from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the courtyard. A book signing with author Shelton Wilder is set for September 15 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

A few blocks away, on San Vicente Boulevard, the h.wood Group has plans for Montana's, a members-club-style restaurant and lounge slated to open at 11920 San Vicente Blvd in early 2027. It's a separate planned project on the same stretch of Brentwood.

None of this changes what a walk through the Mart feels like on a Sunday morning, chicken from Reddi Chick, produce from Gretna Green Way, a new candle from whichever storefront most recently changed hands. But the next time a shop window changes on 26th Street, it's worth remembering that Brentwood Country Mart shares an owner with the Montecito and Marin Country Marts.

If you're weighing what a neighborhood like this actually offers day to day, beyond the listings and the median price, that's the kind of read only comes from paying attention block by block. Renée Avedon works Brentwood and the Westside the same way, one relationship and one address at a time. Let's Connect.