Whole Foods -- Halsted & Waveland

Went to the long-awaited (for me, anyway) Whole Foods in the new Center on Halsted building. It opened yesterday. There's parking under the building (entrance on Waveland), but it was nearly empty this morning. The store seemed pleasantly busy. The expected opening week goodies were in evidence--lots of samples, a free shopping bag, every checkout stand open. I think I saw a few self-checkouts, but I'm not sure.

I usually go to the Ashland store, so that's my main point of comparison. This store felt a lot more spacious, and seemed to have a more expansive fish counter, meat counter, and bakery. Produce was comparable, maybe even a tad smaller. The prepared foods area was much larger and had a lot more items than any of the stores I've been to in the city (although I haven't been to Cicero & Peterson yet). They were putting out the lunch items when I was there.

Notable features included a wine sampling kiosk. Just as I was considering whether I'd look like a lush sampling wine at 10:30 a.m. with my 2-year-old with me, I saw that samples are not free. You obtain a prepaid card (I didn't notice a minimum amount you need to put on it), insert it into the reader and push the button above the wine you want to sample. Samples are 1 oz. and most were in the $0.75-$1.50 range, but there were a couple between $2 and $3 and one was $8.

Also exciting to us was the gelato counter. There were 18 flavors--we tried the mixed berry. I figured they all were fresh, so we couldn't lose, and it was very good. A 2 oz. serving was $1.99 and of course they go up from there.

I'm actually planning to return tomorrow with my older (3 1/2) son, as I told him I'd take him there to check it out. We've been watching the construction progress for months, so he's been looking forward to it. I just wanted to get most of the actual shopping out of the way today because shopping with two little boys is harder than with just one. Now I have an excuse to get another flavor of gelato! I also realized after I left today that I didn't find the bulk foods area, so I'll be checking for that tomorrow. I'll add more detail later if warranted.

Whole Foods Market
3640 N. Halsted Street
Chicago IL 60613
773.472.0400
773.472.8340 fax
8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

A side note: the new WF at Canal and Roosevelt is set to open August 8th.

I'd love to know if they are serving smoked meats like the Cicero/Peterson location

i just googled the new roosevelt rd. store and an in house smoker is mentioned, so that's good news.



http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/ ... index.html

I visited the Halsted location today. What a magnificent store! It is probably the biggest Whole Foods i have ever seen. No smoker in site though.

I've been meaning to follow up.... I don't have much to add, but I actually ended up there twice on Friday--I expect to hear the Replacements' "Here Comes a Regular" the next time I'm there! The first trip, people were pushing samples like crazy, so the boys and I almost made a lunch of it. We also tried the coconut gelato, which was very nice. I managed to forget milk, an item so obvious and frequently bought that it never actually is written on the list, but I was a bit frazzled...

So we returned in the early evening for that and a few other things I didn't need to spend so much on. Earlier in the day my older boy loved the cucumber roll he tried from the sushi counter, so I bought him one for dinner. We also got some teriyaki (sp?) wings from the hot foods--looked better than they tasted, according to my husband. I also picked up a few shrimp from the seafood bar, which had cooked shrimp with a variety of sauces, e.g. pesto, cajun, bbq, garlic parmesan. The pesto was ok, but all in all not worth $9.99/lb. There was also plain cooked shrimp, two seafood salads, and a few soups. A sample of Charlie Trotter's smoked salmon rolled up with chopped granny smith apples and some other stuff in them was very tasty. The place was truly packed with the after-work crowd.

I ran there with the boys in the jogging stroller down Broadway, which was really unpleasant (I rarely run anywhere but along the lakefront). Uptown is changing, but it's a process. I took the lakefront home--less direct, but worth it. I stuffed my soft cooler and some ice packs in the bottom of it, and it actually worked out well. I was glad my stroller is supposed to hold 100 lbs. (boys are around 60), and my quads were whining by the time we got home.

I found out that there are no bulk foods. Their focus is obviously on the prepared stuff. Also, I saw signs for free WiFi by the counters that line the windows along Halsted. I looked and did not find any smoked meats--sorry, viaChicago.

I was in the new WF on Sunday. I asked about the bulk foods section and found out that it will be coming in the next few weeks. They'll be shifting things around to make room. How they will do that, I'm not sure, but I'll be interested in seeing how it works out.

I have to say that my love affair with this store is quickly coming to an end after only slightly less than a year of it having been opened. One of the things that I really loved about the store, when it opened last summer, was it's very fresh, though albeit very expensive, fish counter and it's dry aged prime beef. I don't each much beef these days due to dietary restrictions. But, when I do, I like to really go for the good stuff, seared and sliced really thin.

Over the past few months, I have personally witnessed the rather unsightly deterioration of the products sold at the seafood counter. What was once fresh and pristine looking now looks old, filmy and dull. More often than not, the department itself gives off a less than fresh seafood smell as you pass it. Case in point: Their $27 a pound "sushi grade tuna". About three weeks ago, I went in and there were three smallish, graying around the edges pieces of tuna in the case. The following conversation ensued:

YPW: Do you have anymore tuna in the back that you can cut freshly for me?
WF Fish Monger: We have some in the case here.
YPW: Yeah, I see. But, it doesn't look as fresh as I like it. And I'd like a bigger piece than those. Could you cut me some?
WFFM: Let me check.
A couple of minutes pass
WFFM: We have some. But, I can't cut it until tomorrow. What we have in the case is fine though. We cut it today.
YPW: It's kind of filmy looking and gray. I'm picky about fish.
WFFM: No, it's really fine. We know our fish here.
YPW: Maybe I'll stop back tomorrow when you can cut me some.

I ended up going to Costco and getting three pounds of very fresh, very beautiful tuna, which I shrink wrapped and froze for what a pound of the graying WF product would have cost.

Last night, I stopped by the Halsted WF location, again, looking for a top notch steak to sear and slice really thin with some roasted asparagus. As I passed the fish and seafood counter, the very unpleasant smell of fish that's beyond its prime hit my nostrils, so I didn't even slow down to take a look. Though I did notice some less than prime looking Copper River Salmon priced at $33.99 a pound.

When I approached the meat counter, and looked at the "dry aged prime" strip steaks, it was really hard to differentiate them from the non-prime (I assume choice) unaged strip steaks that were right next to them. I'm not the most knowledgeable food guy in the world. But, I've seen enough dry aged prime beef (including that displayed in the WF dry aged case behind the meat conunter), to know that what was being sold out front, if it was dry aged at all, hadn't been "dry aged" for many days. It was bright red and colored no differently that a steak in a package at Jewel would look.

What a disappointment. I have learned that I can buy better products, more affordably and support local vendors at the same time.