Crystal Lake - Joseph's Marketplace

The co-owners of Eurofresh Market on Rt. 14 in Palatine have just opened a 25,000 sq ft store in the old Eagle Store on Rt. 14 in Crystal Lake. Up to this point, the only groceries have been the major chains and a couple of Mexican markets which were really lacking in fresh produce.

From a couple of walkthroughs, the produce is first rate and priced significantly below the major chains. They have a wide variety of produce including Mexican and Latin American specialties and a small selection of Asian produce.

Unlike, Eurofresh which has limited fresh meat. this store has a wide variety of meats including organ meats like lamb kidneys and chcken feet. What is a bit surprising is that they offer a good variety of well-presented high-end meats at fairly reasonable prices.

The deli is smaller than Eurofresh's and has fewer of the top-end selections but beats the daylight out of the majors in both selection and quality. The in-store bakery is also pretty good and carried a wide selection of low-end pastries.

They also carry breads from a number of the independent Chicago bakeries.

There are two major additions in this market. First, they carry a wide variety of Russian and Eastern European groceries which had been unavailable in McHenry Co. since the Russian deli closed in McHenry. They also offer hot lunches. I did not have the opportunity to try them as I have only made it there before closing.

Personally, I am happy to see this as I have been driving down to Palatine for produce every other week for the past five years.

I also stopped in over the weekend and fully agree with jlawrence's writeup. I walked out with a couple of bags of nice fresh produce and only $6 the poorer! A very welcome addition to the area.

In addition to the Russian/Eastern European selection, I was struck by the excellent Indian grocery aisle. And the Mexican aisle was pretty crowded (a good sign!), so I didn't even explore that...

As many of you might know, Joseph's Marketplace closed back in July due to a roof collapse on July 22 during the big storm.

They will reopen tomorrow, November 15th. This evening, they had about 60 employees stocking the shelves.

They have been missed a lot.