DRAMA ON 24TH Street: The Real Food Company, a fixture for the past third of a century at the center of Noe Valley, is near to being no more – or, perhaps more accurately, to being reborn with a new name and a new look. The store closed abruptly the evening of Aug. 29 for "renovation"; most of the staff were laid off and told they could reapply for their jobs in four to six months.

By then the store is likely to have been renamed Fresh Organics and to have become a purveyor of – in addition to the familiar assortment of high-end organic produce and groceries – meat, fish, and poultry. So says Sergio Diaz of Nutraceutical International, the Park City, Utah, company that owns Fresh Organics and that bought up three of Real Food's locations in San Francisco when the original owners sold their interest in March 2002. (The other two locations, one on Polk Street and the other on Fillmore, were bought by a southern California concern.)

The Real Food acquisitions mark Nutraceutical's first foray into retail grocery, and the makeover of the 24th Street store is, in effect, the creation of a template for the freshenings of Fresh Organics' other holdings in the area (the Real Food outlets on Stanyan Street and in Sausalito, along with Tom's Natural Foods on Geary Boulevard) and presumably, at some point, beyond the area.

Diaz claims the renovation is mainly about creating "a better shopping environment for customers" and "a better workplace environment for employees." The Noe Valley space is old and cramped, especially when compared to the spaciousness of, say, Whole Foods, which sets the industry standard for selling natural and organic foods in the sumptuous surroundings today's yuppies have come to expect and are willing to pay for.

So: vanity, thy name is yuppie, and we shall most likely see thee at the new Fresh Organics (according to Diaz the name change is "most likely" but not certain) in Noe Valley. Or, if not there, at Whole Foods, with its basement garage full of BMWs.

I don't mean to strike too dark a note. One does deplore the loss of local ownership of Real Foods and the apparent advent of yet another national corporate chain, even if wearing some neighborhood makeup. On the other hand, Real Food's aged 24th Street location is ripe for a re-do. Meanwhile let us not forget Rainbow Foods, which remains the jewel in the crown of a certain sort of San Francisco enterprise and a place of refuge from the rising tide of inc.