page_title: Joan's on Third
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Joan's on Third / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside Joan's on Third in Los Angeles, California. Photo by ChildofMidnight, please give me all credit and accolades, but keep your criticisms to yourself.
context_page_description: Joan's on Third is a specialty food marketplace and restaurant located on Third Street in Los Angeles, California, USA. Joan's is situated in an area popular with Angelenos for its eating and shopping establishments, located between the Beverly Center on La Cienega Boulevard and Farmer's Market at the Grove on Fairfax Avenue.
  A family business owned and operated by chef Joan McNamara and her children, Carol McNamara Glass and Susie Hastings, Joan's started out as a catering operation running out of a storefront on Third St. As demand grew, McNamara expanded her business to include a small café and marketplace. The store tripled its size after a decade of operation, and the restaurant now includes a full menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The shop in the same space sells artisan cheeses, prepared foods, baked goods, desserts and non-perishables.
  Its popularity and success has grown on the strength of its products and good reviews in multiple publications and media outlets. It also has a reputation as a hip gathering spot frequented by Hollywood celebrities and foodies, such as Robert Duvall, Jake Gyllenhaal and Moon Zappa.
context_section_description: Joan McNamara, namesake of Joan's, is a chef originally from New York, where she ran a cooking school and her own restaurant before moving to L.A. She opened Joan's in 1995 as a catering company located in a storefront on West Third St. Joan's two daughters, Carol, a graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, and Susie, an alumna of the Georgetown University School of Business, also run the business, with Carol running the Catering and Special Events arm of the business, and Susie overseeing Operations. San Francisco chef Chester Hastings came to work at the store in 1997 and eventually married Susie McNamara.
  In 1998 Joan's expanded into an adjacent storefront on Third Street, helping to realize Ms. MacNamara's "lifelong dream of opening a gourmet foods marketplace and café." Another major expansion took place in 2007 that helped expand the scope of the company's operations by tripling the floor space of the market. Beside being a market, Joan's is also a full-service restaurant providing table service and take-out meals for it patrons. Often very busy, Joan's has been described as being reminiscent of some famous New York restaurants, including Zabar's, Dean & DeLuca, and Fairway Market.
  Joan's has a full-service cheese counter, dessert bar, assortment of chocolates; and a food counter where sandwiches, ready-to-eat foods, salads and snacks are offered. An assortment of dry goods and refrigerated products are also offered. The owners travel extensively to source products.
caption: Interior of Joan's on Third, the cheese counter
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:11:08 14:19:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9716", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10026", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:08 14:19:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:11:08 14:19:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "128021/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "118447/32768", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3456", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9230", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1728000/437", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "384000/97", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}