Update on the (North) Elston Ave Marino's:

My sources tell me that they are shooting for a 9/18 opening. From the looks of the outside of the building, it looks like that might be pretty realistic, barring some sort of city inspection snafu.

interesting post on the roundy's finance discussion board that the stores are a money sink right now, with the possibe exception of Arlington Heights.

The AH store is by far my fave of the ones up north (Palatine and Vernon Hills don't do it for me) but ivebeenfindingmore flash than substance each time I go in. Been heading back to Sunset more often than not.

stevez wrote:Update on the (North) Elston Ave Marino's:

My sources tell me that they are shooting for a 9/18 opening. From the looks of the outside of the building, it looks like that might be pretty realistic, barring some sort of city inspection snafu.

Done deal-- The store will open tomorrow 9/18

I've had occasion to get cooked rotisserie chickens from various of our local purveyors in the last few months--Jewel, Treasure Island, Trader Joe's--and the one I brought home from Mariano's the other night was by far the best of them. Dark meat thoroughly done yet white meat not overdone, all tender and juicy, all well seasoned.

The parking lot is still a nightmare, though.

When the Roscoe Village Mariano's first opened, I thought it was terrific. It was very well staffed with such helpful people, the shelves were always fully stocked, and the produce looked pretty good. I still visit this location for a number of items but I've been far less impressed as the months have passed. I still like that they carry a lot of higher quality products than I typically find at Jewel & Dominick's, such as King Arthur flour, better quality baking chocolate, etc.

But I shopped there earlier today and was frustrated with many empty shelves, i.e., spaces marked for the products but several items simply not in stock, for example, raspberry jam I needed for baking and molasses. And their green bell peppers were in terrible shape, all very soft and shriveled.

When I asked a store clerk if there might be molasses in the stockroom that simply hadn't been shelved yet, he told me probably not and to go talk to someone at the service desk. When the store first opened, you'd never have been met with such a response.

So while I still find a lot of good with this Mariano's, I'm also disappointed that the early days of this location were more of a mirage.

The Roscoe Village Mariano's looked like a disaster area when I visited last Thurs. PM. Aside from being low on the stock of many items (the bananas were especially green and in short supply) the outdoor area was a complete mess of trash and scattered shopping carts. The Lane Tech kids can't be blamed for EVERYTHING ya' know!

Unfortunately, the Jewel across the street, having recently undergone a sort of revamp appears to be little, if at all, improved.

More frustration at the Roscoe Village Mariano's today. While there for some pretty basic staples, I also decided to pick up some Prosciutto di Parma for a pizza I was making tonight. The plan was to bake the pizza and then top it with the Prosciutto once out of the oven. So I asked the woman at the meat counter for 1/4 pound, shaved extremely thin. First, she didn't know which one was the Prosciutto di Parma (and didn't trust me when I pointed at it) and neither did one of her co-workers. Eventually, a third person showed both of them. Then came time for slicing . . . uggghhhh . . . such a beautiful pig never ever deserved to meet this hack. Lacking all respect, she hacked the Prosciutto into terribly uneven pieces, even smushing a couple pieces together.

The moral of the story: Yes, I prefer Mariano's to Dominick's and Jewel because they do sell some better products. But make no mistake . . . Mariano's is just a slightly better version of the other two and nothing to be excited about.

Hi- Bob Mariano was on Chicago Tonight this evening. He said that they are eventually planning on having around 50 stores in the Chicago area.

BR wrote:More frustration at the Roscoe Village Mariano's today. While there for some pretty basic staples, I also decided to pick up some Prosciutto di Parma for a pizza I was making tonight. The plan was to bake the pizza and then top it with the Prosciutto once out of the oven. So I asked the woman at the meat counter for 1/4 pound, shaved extremely thin. First, she didn't know which one was the Prosciutto di Parma (and didn't trust me when I pointed at it) and neither did one of her co-workers. Eventually, a third person showed both of them. Then came time for slicing . . . uggghhhh . . . such a beautiful pig never ever deserved to meet this hack. Lacking all respect, she hacked the Prosciutto into terribly uneven pieces, even smushing a couple pieces together.

The moral of the story: Yes, I prefer Mariano's to Dominick's and Jewel because they do sell some better products. But make no mistake . . . Mariano's is just a slightly better version of the other two and nothing to be excited about.

The deli counter at that store is notoriously bad--long waits and seeming lack of care and/or knowledge on the part of the staff.

FWIW the cheese counter stocks some pre sliced prosciutto. It's not the best, but it's not mangled. That's my "go to" so I can avoid the deli crowd.

Hi- Here is the link for Bob Mariano's appearance on Chicago Tonight.

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2014/01/06/marianos-ceo

Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- For those people that are unhappy with the deli department at the Roscoe Village store, I would suggest that you visit Mariano's facebook page, and mention problems you have encountered there. I bet that things will improve once corporate realizes what is going on. Also have you tried talking to the manager of the store? Hope this helps, Nancy