For those of us in the New Haven area who have been waiting for a Whole Foods to at least get close to us and end those interminable drives to Glastonbury or West Hartford or Greenwich or Westport – November 11 is the day. Whole Foods in Milford opens at 8 a.m. It’s located at 1686 Boston Post Road.
It’s not that Whole Foods is necessarily the be-all, end-all of food and natural stuff in Connecticut. And heaven knows, it ain’t cheap. But it is the only place for certain things. And I, for one, am willing to pay a little more for some of that product.
Cheese is the main one – at least for me. For reasons I have yet to figure out, Connecticut just can’t seem to rustle up a real cheese shop with a full international blend of good stuff – kind of a la Murray’s in New York.
Liuzzi’s in North Haven has its homemade mozzarella and ricotta, an improving selection of Italian cheeses and a few others thrown in for good measure. Caseus in New Haven tends to tilt French, but with a tiny selection. The local cheese makers are hit-and-miss around the state at farmers’ market and specialty stores.
But if you want a great big fat selection of all kinds of cheese – imported, local, organic, you name it – Whole Foods seems to be the only one-stop-shopping in the state.
For meat eaters it generally is the only place to get fresh bison meat (other than the meat produced at Creamery Brook Bison in Brooklyn, Conn. – but it’s always frozen). It’s about the only place to reliably find lamb. It’s about the only place to get jars (NOT cans) of Hatch chilies, which of course you will never get fresh in this part of the world. You can count on quality produce, even if it’s not local, which makes a difference in the off-season. And it tends to carry large sizes of good natural brands of cleaning and laundry products, so you’re not having to buy a gazillion bottles. And they have extremely high quality bulk products – flours, nuts, grains, etc.
Granted the chicken and fish – you can usually do better locally. The breads have just never been all that good. And the prepared foods – yes they’re good. But in this economy – who’s really gonna spend the money?
On the whole (OK, pun intended) – I am happy they’ve arrived, and once I check ‘em out, I’ll fill in a little more.
Cute. A fair take on the always controversial WF.
I haven’t checked out Whole Foods yet, but Chestnut Fine Foods in New Haven at 1012 State Street has a nice cheese selection (among other goodies)–and the staff is knowledgeable and helpful with suggestions.
hey we can’t stock everything WF can, but there are some great small stores like us trying to support healthy eating and a locavore lifestyle. if you haven’t yet check out BRANFORD GREEN GROCER!