Bristol Farms, the posh purveyor of exotic foods, fine wines and gourmet groceries, is playing a game of musical stores as it jockeys for prime locations in town.

Last year, the specialty chain opened two new stores in tony neighborhoods, only to close them recently because they weren’t the right fit for its expansion plan.

Location is very important to the privately owned company that in 1982 opened its first supermarket in one of the country’s wealthiest neighborhoods, Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes peninsula.

The stores, which make 30 varieties of sausages and sell more than 500 types of cheese, only open in areas with well-to-do residents. So it came as a surprise when the El Segundo-based company in October shuttered its store at the Brentwood Country Mart on 26th Street, a little more than a year after it had opened.

Brentwood, home to several movie stars and wealthy executives, would seem to be the perfect spot for a Bristol Farms store, where Kobe beef sells for $159 a pound and several locations have climate-controlled wine cellars.

But the Brentwood Country Mart store, which was only 10,000 square feet, was only about one-third the size of a typical Bristol Farms store and had limited parking, company executives said.

“People didn’t particularly like that store. It was a dilemma,” said Kevin Davis, Bristol Farms’ president and chief executive.

So when the store’s lease expired, company executives decided it would be better to close the market and look for a new location.

“We want a larger store in Brentwood with a capacity to put everything in it that we have in our bigger stores,” said Davis, a former senior vice president of marketing at Ralphs Grocery Co. “We are negotiating for another site for a full-size store of 25,000 square feet.”

Weeks after closing the Brentwood location, company executives decided to vacate their Century City store location on Santa Monica and Beverly Glen boulevards, which since Nov. 17 has been operated by Bristol Farms as the Santa Glen Market. The company is trying to sell that store, which it bought in a three-store deal from Gibson & Cooke, Davis said.

The decision to change the name and sell the Century City store happened just as Bristol Farms was celebrating the Nov. 15 grand opening of its much ballyhooed West Hollywood store, located several miles away in the former Chasen’s Restaurant building on Doheny Drive and Beverly Boulevard.

The 27,000-square-foot store is the latest addition to Bristol Farms’ measured expansion plan that has been adding a few stores every year.

Its main competitors are Gelson’s, based in Encino, and Whole Foods, an Austin, Texas-based chain which specializes in organic produce.

Supermarket industry analyst Bill Bishop of Bishop Consulting in Barrington, Ill., noted that the Bristol Farms concept is a strong one, particularly in Los Angeles, where three major grocery chains dominate the mix.

“But for Bristol Farms, having the right location is needed,” said Bishop. “Another component is having the size for a good business mix and being able to offer your customers things like a bakery and a deli.”