Urban Orchard now open in Andersonville

Urban Orchard (http://myurbanorchard.com/) soft-opened yesterday in Andersonville. It's another entry in the local/natural market, modeled after Green Grocer and City Provisions. they appear to be well-funded, since they signed long term leases for 3 locations.

I stopped by and checked out the place. So far it is a work in progress. Shelves were still waiting to filled, and some of what was there was of the standard organic variety you can get in any good grocery store these days. On the upside: meats (frozen) were from Marengo, the vegetables appeared to be sourced local and they had gallon size Kilgus farm milk. The first time I see the gallon size in a store in Chicagoland. They also had flour from Roger’s grist mill.

I will visit them again this weekend when their grand opening is taking place, to get a second impression


Edited to correct name of Green Grocer

duppie wrote:Urban Orchard (http://myurbanorchard.com/) soft-opened yesterday in Andersonville. It's another store in the local/natural market, modeled after Green Goddess ...

I assume you mean Green Grocer. Urban Orchard is currently being sued by Green Grocer in West Town, as the complaint alleges, in short, that the owner of Urban Orchard approached Green Grocer to invest, gained access to their business plans for expansion, and essentially copied them to open his own stores, ie, Urban Orchard.

I checked this place out today. Appealing space, but the prices were a bit much for me. Wee $4 cups of gelato? $2 single chocolates? I did purchase some hummus ($3.50 or so) but honestly, Aldi brand is better.

We had the same reaction on our couple of visits: attractive space and selection but pricey. Too pricey for us, anyway. Quality was good--though nothing struck us as out of this world. Had we remained in the 'hood instead of moving recently, I suspect we'd probably drop in once or twice a year out of curiosity and because they were convenient to us, but no more than that.

Urban Orchard is good for picking up a few high quality things that aren't otherwise easy to find, esp in this neighborhood. i.e. milk, meat. But their produce section and dry goods sections are not that great. I was especially surprised that the produce section wasn't better.

Andersonville Boutique Grocer Urban Orchard to Close By End of January

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150123 ... of-january