SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Michael Teel, the former top executive at Raley's Supermarkets here, and his business partner in a new retail food venture published an open letter to area residents in the Sacramento Bee newspaper earlier this month announcing they were backing off plans to open a Good Eats location on the site of an epicurean market that has been a neighborhood institution for nearly 40 years. "After deep reflection ... Good Eats believes it is in the best interests of all parties concerned for us to voluntarily back away from our plans for a lease of the Corti [Bros.] site at this time and provide [owner Darrell] Corti and the landlord the opportunity to reach their own resolution," Teel and his partner, Michael Ashker, said in the letter. Good Eats is intended to be a group of gourmet grocery stores emphasizing fresh prepared foods, with some units combining a market with a bistro. Teel told the Bee in August he was hoping to open a Good Eats Grocer at the Corti site. According to the letter, the partners were told in April that Corti's lease would not be renewed and that the location was being sought by other operators, prompting them to consummate a lease agreement in July. However, following community protests, the landlord and Corti have resumed negotiations, the letter said, prompting Teel and Ashker to decide to abandon the location and to make plans to open a Good Eats location elsewhere in the area.

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