recommendation: grocery store Plum Market

In Chicago I had no strong allegiance to a grocery store - I would go wherever convenient, and rotate between Trader Joe's (best frozen meals, herb prices, pre-marinated meat, and jarred sauces), Jewel (cheapest overall, inexpensive flowers, good cheese section), Dominick's (good produce, bakery and salad bar), and Whole Foods (best produce, hot food & salad bar, ready to eat foods, etc.) and even Sky Grocer our neighborhood store (which prices are SKY HIGH but its a beautiful store and saved me in a few cooking binds).

Here in Michigan, I'm fiercely loyal to Busch's. They are the closest to me but really, it comes down to more. Their store is always clean and stocked, there are samples, everyone (literally everyone in every department) is friendly and helpful. Their prices might be more than Meijer or Kroger, but they are less than Whole Foods and I feel like they sell quality products that make it worth it.

OK but this post is not about my love for Busch's, ha! Its about another fantastic grocery store that is in Ann Arbor and that is coming to Chicago! PLUM MARKET! I'm so excited for my fellow Chicagoans to experience Plum.

They are a high-end grocery store, similar to Whole Foods but much smaller. I've been thinking for the past few days about what makes them different - they too source local products, are heavily organic, offer health options, have premade foods and a great salad & olive bar... and then I learned that they have a reason to be similar:

Matthew Jonna and Marc Jonna are third generation retailers who grew up working for their father’s store, Merchant of Vino Marketplace, a natural, organic, and specialty food and wine store with six locations across the Midwest. The chain attracted significant attention from competitors and in 1998 Whole Foods Market acquired the company. Both Jonna’s continued to work with the Whole Foods Market executive leadership team. Matt and Marc left Whole Foods Market to pursue developing a new grocery concept, later to become Plum Market....

Plum is opening in Chicago in Spring 2013, so sorry to get you prematurely excited, but I need you to all be aware so that when you start seeing signage and construction in Old Town, you know what's coming. It'll be located at 1233 North Wells, Chicago IL 60610.

Another reason I'm excited is because Plum is Zingerman's product-heavy, so I'm hoping this brings more Zingerman's to Chicago!

I debated whether this blog post should be about the store or my favorite dish from Plum, so I'm combining them. Let me tell you about my love for... their BEETS. Beets are a weird vegetable. My only experience of them were as a kid at Easter, seeing hard boiled eggs pickled in beet juice.

As an adult I tried them but didn't get it. They tasted kind of dirty, you know? I have a friend Brianna that loves beets, and since I adore her, it made me want to love beets more. And my friend Anne's 3 year old daughter was eating them when she was 2 so I figure, if she can eat them, why can't I? I tried them at a fancy restaurant and they weren't so bad. So when my mom brought home this beet salad from Plum Market, I was open to trying it. I can't explain to you how UN-BEET this salad is. They taste so...clean! And fresh and pure. They are oven-roasted red beets with thinly sliced red onions in red wine vinaigrette. Its awesome and addictive (and expensive - beets are kind of heavy and its from the salad bar that's charged by weight, so you have been warned). If you like beets or are willing to try, check this dish out.