New restaurant, new look coming to Sierra Madre/Colorado corner

I live in the part of Pasadena that looks less like Old Pasadena and more like the rest of the San Gabriel Valley: just south of the corner of Sierra Madre and Colorado.

Currently, the corner sports a strip mall and a Vons/Rite Aid with a giant parking lot.

But all that appears to be changing. First, this week the long-awaited Plate 38 opened in the strip mall on the northeast side of the corner. I call it long-awaited not because I claim to know about how other people in Pasadena feel about the place, but because my wife and I have been clamoring for a place to walk to for breakfast for the last three years, and we've seen the Plate 38 storefront for the last six months with an "OPENING SOON" banner.

I am looking forward to trying it, though I have noted it isn't exactly the cheap hole-in-the-wall option I am accustomed to: despite the small and casual appearance of the store, likes like most menu items go for $10 or more, not much by Old Pasadena standards, but quite high compared to the existing $5 burrito and sandwich stores that currently dominate the neighborhood.

Now, one restaurant can't turn East Pasadena into Old Pasadena, but the next changes are coming very soon. I noticed this morning that the northwest corner of the Vons/Rite Aid lot has been cordoned off for construction. The plan is to move the Vons out to the street, hiding the parking lot, and then adding additional stores that will line the sidewalk. The idea is to make the lot look like it is for pedestrians, rather than for cars. Observe below:

I don't really know how successful these changes are, but because I only use the area as a pedestrian, and not as a car driver, I am totally for them.