Sage advice: Hang onto those gift cards

Things have been relatively quiet after a few weeks of bustling activity, but there's still plenty to report this week.

Got Sage gift cards?

After I revealed the new operator of Sage Restaurant and Wine Bar in a recent Reporter's Notebook, e-mails and calls came in as readers wondered what to do about unspent gift cards.

The new operator, Steve Hart, who currently owns and operates Sea Galley in Union Gap, has received similar inquiries.

Hart made it clear that he or any of the restaurant's investors will not leave people with gift cards hanging: "One way or another, we will make good on all those cards," he said.

Hart said he will accept the gift cards when he reopens the restaurant in the next few months -- or there will be some arrangement for those who want a full-cash refund: "They're still good," he said. "Don't throw them away."

BIMORE opens Sunnyside store

BIMORE recently opened a store at Sunnyside's Mid Valley Mall.

The Vancouver, Wash.-based company has been operating a store on North First Street in Yakima. A year ago, the company changed its name from Plateau Trading Co. to BIMORE as part of a rebranding effort.

The stores sell a variety of electronics, small appliances, kitchen wares and other products they obtain through closeouts, returns and overstock merchandise.

The company, which has been in business since 2003, also has locations in Enumclaw, Wash., Camas, Wash., Eugene, Ore., and Redding, Calif.

Onion prices prompt cries from one restaurant owner

You may have seen the Page One story I wrote last week about the rising price of eggs and bacon and its impact on local restaurants.

Jar Arcand, owner of Santiago's in downtown Yakima, pointed out that restaurants are also feeling the pain with other foods.

"A 50-pound bag of yellow onions is normally $8.95 to $12.95 year-round. This past spring, the price shot up over $50 for that same sack of onions," Arcand wrote in an e-mail last week. "That is a substantially higher increase -- (more than) 400 percent -- than what you see on eggs."

The price for those onions has dropped, but it's still in the $20 range, more than he would like, he said.

In the end, Arcand said, restaurant owners are always dealing with unpredictable food costs.

"It's something you have to pay attention to all the time," he said. "If you turn your back on one thing, it will suddenly jump up."

What to watch

* I wrote in a recent Reporter's Notebook that Seattle-based food cooperative PCC Natural Markets was in town a few weeks doing some filming on some local food producers.

PCC recently posted the video that profiles one of those local producers, Inaba Produce Farms in Wapato. It's online at http://ow.ly/2yEyZ.

* Just as it did when it announced its opening, Veloce Caffe, a Yakima espresso stand, announced on Twitter that it has closed its location at 1502 Summitview Ave. and is searching for "a more viable location."

Catch Shop Talk online by reading the blog (www.yakimaherald.com/shoptalk), following me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/shoptalkexpress) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/shoptalkyakima).

* Mai Hoang's Reporter's Notebook is published Mondays in the Marketplace section. To reach her, call 509-577-7685 or e-mail mhoang@yakimaherald.com.