Whole Foods is opening a new flagship grocery store in Chicago, Illinois on May 20th, and I was invited to preview some of the samplings from their wide array of restaurants that will be located inside the store.
At this pre-opening "dress rehearsal," my family and I were given a store tour and encouraged to spend Saturday afternoon tasting entrees, side dishes, and beverages from their abundant restaurant venues featuring menu selections with a Chicago flare. This is a summary of the restaurant offerings within the new Lincoln Park Whole Foods Market:
The shining star was the Chicago Fire Rotisserie, offering a variety of bar-b-que and southern style dishes. We sampled generous, meal-sized portions of the rib tips and spare ribs with a sweet, tangy, mustard-based Carolina bar-b-que sauce, a beef brisket with traditional bar-b-que sauce, mashed potatoes, collard greens, cole slaw, and corn muffins.
The rib meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, and the sauces were flavorful. My children couldn't stop eating the corn muffins, and the collard greens were the best I've ever had. (And that's really saying something coming from this devoted fan of these hearty greens!)
At the Pilsen Taqueria, I sampled a bite or two of the beef burrito and the chicken taco with freshly made guacamole, as well as the roasted corn-on-the-cob, which was smeared in butter and slightly spicy seasonings. Yum!
At the Taylor Street Pizzeria, there are both New York style and Chicago style pizzas, along with fresh pasta cooked-to-order with your choice of sauces and ingredients ranging from shrimp to spinach. We sampled the ziti with alfredo sauce and a slice of the deep dish pepperoni pizza. The pasta was tender and cooked to perfection, and my five-year-old loved the pizza.
For beverages, we enjoyed Whole Foods' own delicious brand of 365 Everyday Value black cherry soda and ginger ale, made with all natural ingredients, using only cane sugar as a sweetener rather than the high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners found in most sodas. These sodas will definitely be on my grocery list in the future.
Article comments
1 - Irene Athena
I'm more familiar with NY style pizza, but I'll try Chicago style.
2 - Lisa Damian
Even though I'm currently living in Chicago, I like NY style pizza better or even brick oven style pizza popularized in California. Any way around it though, pizza -- Yum!