Lincoln Park Whole Foods Market

Our closest Whole Foods recently moved a block away from its location on North Ave. Clearly, sharing a parking lot with Best Buy was not the optimal situation and perhaps affected business. The new location is not incredibly convenient, but we were in the area decided to indulge our curiosity. Whole Foods has a tendency to be a bit elitist, but you can't argue with the quality they carry. The parking lot remains small with a section for alternative fuel vehicles directly in front of the store. However, we quickly discovered that there was plenty of parking as the second floor of the building acts as a parking garage.

Escalate down towards the front of the store and you get a bird's eye view of the produce section, the flowers to the left, and surprisingly enough a bar to the right. That's right...a bar. They carry an interesting selection of unique beers for about $4-5 a pint. It's amazing this store closes at 10 pm. The flowers seem to be of good quality and are relatively high priced. My wife was not overly impressed with the selection despite the overall quality.

We skipped past the produce section, but noted that they had some great deals including 1 lb boxes of strawberries for 2/$3. Immediately after the produce, the store opens up into two sections. To the left is a cereal and grain aisle which also had a great selection of nuts. The right side sports a selection of amazing looking cuts of fish. I could go on and describe the layout of the store, but it's not much different what you would imagine. A dairy section, meats, and aisles of frozen and boxed goods.

Past the cereal and grain aisle, the store continues to be surprise with an extensive wine section complete with its own sommelier. You won't find the grocery store variety of Yellow Tail and whatnot. To make matters worse, if you purchase six bottles you receive 10% off. I was also informed that the store will soon sport a sake section. It doesn't stop there. In between wines and the gratuitous cheeses is a wine and cheese bar with a lazy lounge area. About this time is when we noticed that shoppers were perusing the aisles while carrying a glass of beer or wine. Shopping while drinking?! I'll be trying that soon.

Eventually, we got the section we had originally come for, the pastries. Unfortunately we were immediately distracted by the existence of a gelato bar. Then distracted again by a neon diner sign. Whole Foods has a diner inside.

The selection of pastries has been expanded a bit to include some local favorites. That's right, Whole Foods carries the Sophia from our favorite pattisserie, Vanille. We grabbed a fruit tart and an eclaire and continued on to the gelatos.

The robust selection of gelatos include peach, hazelnut, and of course pistachio. We went with a small pistachio which was good but not that good. What was that good was the hazelnut. Of course you can take a pint or quart to go, and on Wednesdays you can take 12 oz. for $3.99. I think we'll be back on Wednesday.

The rest was pretty typical. There were some premade foods, a salad bar, and a sushi bar. At the end of the store there was a barbeque station. Whole Foods has become a tailgating option. I took a side trip to take a look at the coffee beans. No Starbucks here. What they do have is the most extensive selection of local Intelligentsia's I've ever seen. After a couple sniffs, I ended up with Quetzal Breakfast Blend.

Whole Foods isn't a grocery store. It's a tourist destination. It's a retail nightmare. I don't know how we managed to get through there without spending a hundred bucks. I was eyeing the wines...my wife was eyeing the fresh pistachios. Oh that's right, they were closing. We'll be back for sure, but I want to stress that even Whole Foods has a lot of high end items, that doesn't mean you'll be overpaying. The wine selection is very reasonable, and almost everything throughout the store is worth what you pay. That being said, we won't be too interested in the organic selection as we're already loyal to the Wild Harvest brand at Jewel. But there are more than enough enticements to keep us coming back.