Whole Foods Peterson and Cicero

Call me lame, but I admit I was very excited about the opening of this store. I meant to get up and out of the house as early as possible to get there this morning. Well, I didn't get over there until nearly 11am. The parking lot was full and Cicero ave was a mess. After driving around the neighborhood, I finally found a spot about a block away.

This store has some interesting features. A grill bar with smoked and grilled meats like brisket, sausages, chicken and ribs, available by the pound and as sandwiches. Plus a TV and beer on tap. If I could have gotten closer to the area, I would give more details, but it was a mob scene. My son noticed hot pretzels were also available here.

There is also a sushi bar, as well as the expected bakery, deli and sandwich station. The wine dept. looks good but really it was so crowded and I had a baby stroller with a 2-year old Houdini so I had to move fast. Beer selection is much bigger than Evanston, but my verbal inventory to my husband over the phone did not excite him much.

It is a nice store and it will be better once the excitement dies down. I don't buy all my food at WF, but it is a welcome addition to a well-to-do neighborhood where there's little to do. I'll probably still have to go to Evanston though. Peet's coffee is a must in our house.

tonirogerspark wrote:Call me lame, but I admit I was very excited about the opening of this store.

Not lame at all. I've been excited for months, if only for the fact that there will now be a decent fishmonger on the far NW side that's open after 5:30pm during the week.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:Not lame at all. I've been excited for months, if only for the fact that there will now be a decent fishmonger on the far NW side that's open after 5:30pm during the week.

Best,
Michael

Decent indeed. I just got back from my inaugural visit with some wild caught coho salmon in tow for grilling tonight. The fish dept is approx the same size as the one in Evanston and one of the fishmongers from that store is now working at the Sauganash store (along with another guy who used to work at the Gold Coast location). The selection was fairly good, and included not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 different species of salmon (only one of which is farm raised) and a fairly decent selection of other fish. They also had some of the WF style prepared seafood items like the crab cakes, etc.

The meat dept was really nice as well and included WF's usual assortment of high quality beef, lamb and pork. They also sell dry aged beef that they age in house. There is a see-through aging locker behind the meat counter. The guy who seemed to know the most about the dry aging process said that the beef will be aged for 28 days and they have no plans to age anything longer...but then I told him about the 40 day aged steaks at David Burke's and I saw a little light bulb go on over his head, so we'll see if anything develops out of that.

I mostly shop at Whole Foods for meat & fish and little else, but the store seemed well stocked and the addition of the smoked meat & beer section is a nice addition that is being test marketed at this store only. They also had a cooked-to-order Asian food zone with a little sit down bar area attached, so this might be an opportunity for a quick lunch for those of us who live in the immediate area. All in all, I'm glad to see this store finally open. The fact that it is within mere blocks of both my house and my office is a big plus.

LTH,

Though still down for the count with a cold I could not resist the lure of a short hop to the newly opened Peterson/Cicero Whole Foods.

The store, at least what I could see of it between the hordes of people, seemed well managed, even for a WF. Everything sparkled, there were any number of people offering free samples and, as has been said, there were two, maybe three, eat-in areas scattered about the store.

Fish looked good, meat as well, which is lucky as that will most likely comprise the majority of my purchases at WF with Marketplace on Oakton and Lincolnwood Produce remaining my go to for grocery shopping.

The one problem I had with the store was the salad bar as I'm a Salad Bar Sucker, that right, I get downright foolish around a salad bar. I think it's the feeling of eating healthy, even as I load the plastic tub with sesame sticks, croutons, chopped egg, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, along with three or four types of lettuce and various crunchy peppers, carrots and celery.

Hummmm, croutons for $6.99 per lb, not such a good deal, though no worse than the three types of beans, black/kidney/garbanzo, I nestled next to the peas and corn. It was not until I got home and, after barely consuming half of my monstrous impulse laden plastic tub of salad salubrious, did I think to look at the receipt. $13.21. Yikes!

Salad Bar Sucker pretty much says it all.

Enjoy,
Gary

That's OK, Gary. Many of us are salad bar suckers. I, for one, first got sucked in at the Farm Fresh store in Williamsburg, VA, circa 1986. This was in the first wave of "super stores," a grocery store that also had an appliance and clothing store stuck in the middle, etc. Anyway, they had a salad bar that would not quit, and while the price was ridiculous (especially compared to the SAME PRODUCTS being sold on the SAME STORE'S SHELVES), I went back again, and again, and again in my 1987* Plymouth Horizon America. So, if I had a point there, it was: Don't feel bad.


* Chrysler's dangerously souped-up answer to the Trans Am, the Horizon America, issued summer 1986, 0-60 in under 10 seconds, plush fullly reclining seats, doors not necessarily screwed on all the way. Very nice hidden hot rod for a 19-year old at the time. Yup, I traded in my '67 Sunbeam Alpine for one of them.

Very happy to have an good alternative for good meat and fish that falls into one of my homeward bound routes. This will probably cost me, but I'll be happy.

dan1234 wrote:This will probably cost me, but I'll be happy.

This is, beyond matters of food, a truism.

Visited this weekend - very nice WF. The smoked meat section is especially nice... smoked sausages, venison/bison/beef sticks and jerkey. Plus, you can saddle up and drink a beer in the middle of your grocery shopping, so I have added incentive (how many could I drink before they cut me off) to go sans wife

Bought some Sole, made some muniere, delicious. Pretty immaculate place, especially considering how crowded it was.

I like it enough that I'll probably go there instead of the WF closer to me...

I took the tour and my high expectations were met. I was a bit shocked by the underground parking. I drove by often during the construction and did not note it.

Being able to drink beer while shopping is dangerous. I was also sorely tempted to play with the wine tasting machine.

I believe I counted twelve hot ready made soups at three different locations. The hot bar had an impressive array of ethnic cuisine. Oh yeah, how 'bout the shrimp bar?

I made the mistake of getting an Asian soup thing (Fun). There was nothing inherently wrong with it, but I'm used to so much more.

I'm afraid I drive by this place far too often not to abuse it. You'll probably find me there today around 1:00!

-ramon

Finally made it up-and-over to the Cicero/Peterson Whole Foods on the way back from Evanston today (well, sort of on the way back).

Great googly moogly, that's one heck of a store.

I'm much closer to the Lincoln Park Whole Foods, mileage wise, but it took a whopping 9 minutes to get from the Peterson exit to the Armitage exit today: and it takes at least 15 minutes to get over to the LP store, so, really, not that much further. Not to mention, holy crap, you can actually find a parking space, can actually navigate the aisles without tripping over Trixie and Chad and the food just has so many, many more choices.

We've decided we're outlawing the LP store and will hit the Peterson Whole Foods twice a month on weekends. It means no after-work quick trips to the salad and hot food bar for dinner in a pinch, but, you know what, that may just save us money in the long run.

I urge all those who feel they are too far away from the new store to head up there at a non-peak time: it just may be a quicker trip than you think.

Husband and I were there for the first time this afternoon too - just to check it out. We had pretty much the same reaction - WOW. We didn't really need anything, but wound up leaving with a couple of kinds of cheese and some rosemary/sea salt crostini. I joked that we could start doing our weekly grocery shopping there and husband's response was "yeah, and when people ask us how we lost our house, we'll just say Whole Foods moved into the neighboorhood."

Yeah, it's dangerous that this store is on my way home when I drive to work. I've only been there once so far, and it took me twice as long to get through it as I expected because it is so much bigger than the Evanston store. The hot food bar was full of delicious-looking ethnic foods, which I had not intended to buy, but bought anyway, thinking that it could not possibly be as good as it smelled. But when we ate it for dinner, it was actually quite good... a very viable option on those nights when I am running late and I know we are going to end up ordering out.

I didn't even look at the cheese counter, that's too dangerous.

My Whole Foods fever has broke. Since my $13.21 salad bar episode I've been back to the Cicero/Peterson WF way too many times. Sure it starts out innocent enough, pick up a piece of fish for dinner, cup of coffee on the way to the highway, bulk almond/dried cranberry granola and milk. Next thing you know the cart is filled with $29 organic lemons, shade grown asparagus and free trade pumpkin seeds, not to mention so-so tamales at $2 per when Tamales los mejores de Guerrero, to name one, has terrific tamales 12 for $10.

What finally shook me back to reality was a trip to Marketplace on Oakton yesterday. I bought a third of a shopping cart of veggies, couple of types of butter, they had 5 on hand, and a mix of olives. As the young lady is ringing up my purchases, I reach for my wallet, realize I only have 50-60 dollars in cash, so pull out a credit card to pay. Total comes to $23.59. In a few short weeks I had become Whole Fooditized.

So, you may ask, where am I off to right this second? Why Whole Foods of course. We're out of granola, which is reasonably priced, and while I'm there I may as well pick up milk, eggs....................is there a 12-step for WF?

Enjoy,
Gary

MarketPlace on Oakton
4817 W Oakton
Skokie, IL 60077
847-677-9330

Hello, my name is Stevez and I'm Whole Foods-aholic. I just paid over $9.00/lb for some baby back ribs that I could have gotten for easily half the price by driving 15 minutes south on Cicero to Chicago Meat.

I am a long time Whole Foods customer and I shop at the stores close(r) to my home at least two times a week. But, after visiting the Peterson store for the first time yesterday I might abandon this practice altogether and begin shopping exclusively at the Peterson store.

Why? Well, the locations close(r) to my home do not have a made-to-order sandwich bar with beer for sale by the pint. ["The Sauganash Grill." LOL!!] Nor, for that matter, do any of these (other) locations have a made-to-order Asian-style noodle bar.



No, those things won't really have me making the switch, but it is a great store, and I do envy those of you who live nearby.

E.M.

p.s. Gary, you probably don't remember me telling you this so many, many months ago, but I foretold this "conversion" of yours.

Yes, I too chuckled at the upscale "Sauganash Grill," especially just a few doors down from a Greek coffeeshop aimed at the over-90 set with an almost identical name (Sauganash Restaurant).

My impression of the customer base walking around it on Saturday is that they hardly know what hit them.

eatchicago wrote: if only for the fact that there will now be a decent fishmonger on the far NW side that's open after 5:30pm during the week.

Have you been to Super H-Mart and visited their fish department yet? What's your opinion?

kenji wrote:

eatchicago wrote: if only for the fact that there will now be a decent fishmonger on the far NW side that's open after 5:30pm during the week.

Have you been to Super H-Mart and visited their fish department yet? What's your opinion?

Yes -- opinion here, but it's a little too far for me for a weeknight stop.

Best,
Michael

I finally made it to the new W.F. tonight. Someone on a Chicago-based mailing list said that W.F. is going to take a local ice cream off of their shelves, and I wanted to support anything local.

(It's soy ice cream. The brand is Temptations, made by apparently the only local independent ice cream business in the area.) (I'm not a vegan, btw, and this soy "ice cream" didn't taste anything like real ice cream, but it wasn't bad, I guess.)

Walked around for a while and noted that some of the stuff was reasonably priced, and some of the stuff was outrageously priced.

There are not enough cookies. In fact, I couldn't find the cookie aisle, and that was a big disappointment. All I could find was a small pile over by the pastries & chocolates (and btw, I noticed there were some black & white cookies over by the chocolates - if someone who is familiar with the cookie could taste one and report in the "black and white cookie" thread, that would be helpful).

There is a huge olive buffet which I'm sure was already mentioned in this thread. I wish I'd walked out with olives instead of soy "ice cream" and almond pastries (which didn't touch the almond Dutch letters that Jimthebeerguy likes from Pella, Iowa).

It's a beautiful store, and I will be back for the Burt's Bees display, if nothing else.

Saint Pizza wrote:(It's soy ice cream. The brand is Temptations, made by apparently the only local independent ice cream business in the area.)

What about Swiss Gourmet, "Chicagoland's Micro-dairy for Ice Cream"? You can buy it by the quart at the local jewel, and it's pretty good. Their storefront location was voted Best ice-cream parlor in New City's 2001 Best of chicago.

There's also Oberweis, which is still local, isn't it? No need to rehash the politics, but (as far as I know) they'd qualify as local and independent.

Sorry to veer off topic...

Swiss Gourmet
2187 North Clybourn
Chicago, IL
(773)755-4616

germuska wrote:What about Swiss Gourmet, "Chicagoland's Micro-dairy for Ice Cream"? You can buy it by the quart at the local jewel, and it's pretty good. Their storefront location was voted Best ice-cream parlor in New City's 2001 Best of chicago.

Swiss Gourmet closed a few years ago and there is now a Cold Stone Creamery where it used to be.

Fujisan wrote:Swiss Gourmet closed a few years ago and there is now a Cold Stone Creamery where it used to be.

Ah, so.

They still manufacture prepacked quarts; I recently had a cappucino chip frozen yogurt. They make a nice pumpkin ice cream in the fall.

Sorry, I messed up. I thought the person said that it was the only local ice creamery, but what she really said was that it is the only local ice cream that can boast fair trade chocolate in the chocolate ice cream.

LTH,

5pm every third person in the Cicero/Peterson Whole Foods was on the phone. Every third person was completely unaware of cart courtesy, common courtesy, don't yell in my ear courtesy. My mellow was sufficiently harshed to the point of considering beaning the next person who bumped into me with one of the overpriced tangelos in my cart.

I am considering a Whole Foods moratorium until they invoke a cell phone ban.

Gary

G Wiv wrote:5pm every third person in the Cicero/Peterson Whole Foods was on the phone. Every third person was completely unaware of cart courtesy, common courtesy, don't yell in my ear courtesy. My mellow was sufficiently harshed to the point of considering beaning the next person who bumped into me with one of the overpriced tangelos in my cart.

I am considering a Whole Foods moratorium until they invoke a cell phone ban.

I don't have stock in Whole Foods (that I'm aware), but a system-wide moratorium might not be warranted--maybe just that store. "My" Whole Foods is the one on Ashland and School, and despite the aisles being narrower than they ought for the number of customers, actual collisions are surprisingly rare. Everyone seems to know the store is crowded, and so nearly everyone moves his cart with the requisite caution. People aren't exactly thrilled to proceed so cautiously, but they do it.* It's also (believe it or not, and I know this one is hard to believe) relatively rare in my experience to see someone talking on a cellphone there as he shops.

I'm similarly pleasantly surprised that there aren't more accidents in the parking lot (surface or structure). Never seen one, even though conditions are ripe. Again, I attribute this to everyone realizing that conditions are ripe, and proceeding with a surfeit of caution.
_______________________________________________
*There needs to be an adjective to describe the social signal, "I'm being polite to you even while making it clear that it's a royal pain in the ass to be polite to you." Perhaps "faux-lite"? Nevertheless, fauxliteness, while not as admirable as true politeness, is better than cart-bumping rudeness.

G Wiv wrote:5pm every third person in the Cicero/Peterson Whole Foods was on the phone. Every third person was completely unaware of cart courtesy, common courtesy, don't yell in my ear courtesy. My mellow was sufficiently harshed to the point of considering beaning the next person who bumped into me with one of the overpriced tangelos in my cart.

I am considering a Whole Foods moratorium until they invoke a cell phone ban.

Man, I thought I was just being cranky when I went into this store. I'm simultaneously relieved and dismayed that it's not only me. Cell-phone absorbed or merely self-absorbed, I've observed A LOT of rude behavior and lack of courtesy in this store.

And the first time I left their parking lot, my lil' Subaru nearly got creamed by no fewer than 3 behemoth SUVs [2 Navagators & an Escalade, IIRC] driven by tiny women. [Given what has since happened with said Subaru, they would have been doing me a favor, but that's another story.]

Maybe the only safe time to be there is mid-morning on a weekday?

Giovanna

Maybe I'm oblivious...or maybe I'm just laser focused when I go to this store, but I have not encountered any difficulties.

My first accident, EVER, happened exiting the parking lot last week. I knew to exit with caution, however, the other person didn't grasp that. Stalled in a lane, trying to cross, not moving, I got plowed. My biggest complaint is the excessive amount of kids pushing mini-carts. The carts aren't the problem-the problem is that the parents are not astute to telling their children to move when the very patient adults are trying to get through an ailse.

I love kids, and have three of them myself, but when kids drive mini-carts it drives me up a wall!!!

fela, sorry to hear about your accident...that stinks.

Saint Pizza wrote:I love kids, and have three of them myself, but when kids drive mini-carts it drives me up a wall!!!

Maybe the thing that saves the Ashland/School Whole Foods from having this problem is that the aisles are too narrow for kids with mini-carts. So there's no chance of it. (I sure haven't seen it.) I hadn't thought of the narrowness of this Whole Foods' aisles as an advantage, but now I see that it is.

Could also be why there isn't a lot of cellphone talking there. Even rude, inconsiderate a-holes know they need to pay at least a modicum of attention to what's going on around them in those crowded aisles.