New eateries offering Thai, Indian and Romanian foods are under construction along N. Santa Cruz Avenue, and a creamery with 20 new flavors of ice cream is awaiting approval at the south end. There are new owners to meet at Juice It! on Main Street and at Café Primavera—now VIVA primavera—on Los Gatos Boulevard, and Trader Joe's is just weeks away from making the north end of the Boulevard a hopping place.

"There's so much excitement surrounding this opening," says Trader Joe's new Los Gatos manager, Dave Adams. Work on the 8,000-square-foot space that once housed McWhorter's Stationers in the Los Gatos Village Square is nearing completion in time for the Nov. 14 opening of the specialty food and beverage market. More than 5,000 items will be stocked, including such favorite deals as the wine dubbed "Two Buck Chuck" and the market's popular private label items. "We buy high quality and offer it at a great value," Adams says.

Also on Los Gatos Boulevard, a "whole new concept in dining" is taking place on Nov. 1 when Jeff Hanson opens VIVA primavera (capitals and lowercase intended), formerly Café Primavera, in the Cornerstone Shopping Center. Hanson, who is San Mateo born and resides in Ben Lomond, is intent on making his Mediterranean restaurant "a celebration of food, community, neighborhood, people and dining." To emphasize that, his logo has a shooting star. If Hanson's enthusiasm has anything to do with it, the celebration should be long lasting.

At the other end of town, at 81 W. Main St., Juice It! has a new owner. Siblings Lauren Seglia and Larry Barbella sold the health drink/smoothie store in September to Senny Cheung of Almaden Valley. Barbella says his sister's move to the Lake Tahoe area made running the store by himself impractical, in spite of the enthusiastic help he got from his 11-year-old daughter, Breanne. Barbella is now a full-time real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. The food business is a first for Cheung, who left the high-tech world where she was an executive for Hewlett Packard. Cheung's life is changed. "But everything at Juice It! is the same," she says, reassuring fans who make wheat grass and mango juice a morning ritual.

At the corner of S. Santa Cruz Avenue and Main Street, the Swenson's ice cream parlor operated for five years by Arash Riazi has closed. The empty store has been remodeled into two spaces. The space closest to the inner courtyard of the building has been the focus for weeks of Catherine and Gonzalo Aspun. They want to open another Coldstone Creamery there. It was just four months ago that they opened their first creamery, which specializes in hand mixing a variety of ingredients into ice cream, at the corner of Los Gatos Boulevard and Blossom Hill Road. "The Boulevard creamery is a neighborhood place, but a downtown store would have an entirely different atmosphere," Catherine says. Having a downtown store has been her dream for three years, she says, but she had to wait for an eatery to close. Now she has a lease. A conditional-use permit is next.

Down the street at 133 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Delizioso Café and Deli closed after a popular run of several years under Tim Jacobs and Jeff Cimoli. Remodeling is under way to turn the place into Chaat Café, specializing in Indian fare.

A block north at 217-A N. Santa Cruz Ave., remodeling is almost complete at the former Sushi Aoyama that operated for two years under Young Kim. The new owner, Visit Taveethamcharden, is creating an atmosphere for serving Thai cuisine.

Across the street and north another block at 330 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Lisa's Tea Treasures has moved to a new location in Santana Row. Owner Patricia Ramirez, who operated the Los Gatos store for 10 years, saw the move as a brand new opportunity. Likewise for her chef of five years, Simona Todoran. Simona and husband Loan have joined with longtime teahouse customer Carol Hennessy of Los Gatos to turn the teahouse into a Romanian restaurant. Simona is a native of Brasov in the Transilvania region of Romania, thus the restaurant is called Transilvania. Hennessy is quick to discourage images of Count Dracula that author Brom Stoker burned into the name. "It's a beautiful place," she says. They plan to open "around Nov. 7." Call them at 408.395.2424 or visit http://www.transilvania-lg.com.