Not so long ago, going to the supermarket was a pretty pedestrian act -- you stocked up on necessities and got out as fast as possible. Now we want to know: Is there local produce? Gluten-free cereal? A beautiful dinner we can heat, but not cook?
Upscale supermarkets are growing to meet our demands. In the Baltimore area, the latest comer is Fresh Market, which opened in July at the Shops at Quarry Lake. Its arrival led us to investigate what the premium market had to offer, and we checked out four competitors in the northern area of Baltimore -- Eddie's of Roland Park; Graul's in Ruxton; Wegmans and Whole Foods. (We left out chains such as Giant and Super Fresh, which have been developing more upscale offerings but still operate as conventional supermarkets.)
Our testers, Tracey Logsdon and Joannah Hill, visited each store twice -- once on a weekday and once on a weekend. They found some good things (a lot of helpful service and interesting food) and some bad things (crowds, disappointing taste tests).
Mostly, they were struck by the fact that while all of these markets are courting the consumer with upscale tastes and discretionary dollars, each has a distinct identity that a shopper might love -- or not.
RATING KEY
**** Outstanding
*** Good
** Fair or uneven
* Poor
EDDIE'S OF ROLAND PARK
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
The employees here are so attentive -- from greeting you at the door to loading your groceries onto the conveyor belt -- that some find it jarring. The aisles are easy to navigate and hold a nice selection of local goods, like Zeke's Coffee, and gourmet surprises, like honey from the Savannah Bee Co.
RATING *** 1/2
WOW FACTOR
Whether we're entertaining or just picking up a family meal, Eddie's gets our vote as the place to take dinner out. You can count on the market's standbys for a basic meal, and the size of the store is manageable enough that you can get the food home fast.
LET'S EAT NOW
Even though it can be predictable, we love the reliable Baltimore-style fare here, including a tasty shrimp salad and the best crab cake of all the stores we reviewed.
RATING ****
THE FRESH MARKET
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
The Fresh Market aims for Old World charm. Its open design makes it easy to get around, and the employees couldn't be nicer. Favorite finds: the cubbies filled with envelopes of fresh spices and the "ripening bags" by the stone fruit.
RATING ****
WOW FACTOR
The people on duty make the difference here. Employees went the extra mile with samples, suggestions for what to drink with the Mimolette cheese and tips on how to prepare seafood.
LET'S EAT NOW
The rotisserie counter and heaping platters of ribs, chicken, turkey and crown pork roast smell good, but there's not much else to take home for dinner.
RATING **1/2
GRAUL'S MARKET
WOW FACTOR
This is the place where everybody knows your name. With fun events like cookouts in the parking lot, Graul's has the personality of an old-fashioned neighborhood store.
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
The store can feel a bit cramped, especially when customers stop in the aisles to chat. Employees are welcoming and knowledgeable. The small cheese counter has burrata flown in fresh every Friday.
RATING ***
LET'S EAT NOW
You can get a square meal here, but the real draw is the birthday cake with buttercream frosting, a tradition for many families.
RATING ***
WEGMANS
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
A store this big can be hard to navigate, and the crowds make it worse. But the employees, who know what to do with exotic items like tamarind and rambutan, are a silver lining.
RATING ** 1/2
WOW FACTOR
From diapers to dolmades, this is the place for one-stop shopping -- and the competitive prices on many basics ease the sticker shock of the fancier foods.
LET'S EAT NOW
One person wants vegetarian, another wants meat and potatoes and yet another wants Chinese food? Anything you're craving is probably here at the prepared-food emporium. There's a large eat-in area on the mezzanine.
RATING ****
WHOLE FOODS MARKET
THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE
Starting with the narrow entryway and the often-crowded produce section, it can be hard to maneuver around this store. We found good help from employees at the seafood counter, but the butcher was missing in action. Cool find: organic baby clothes.
RATING **
WOW FACTOR
This store had more organic produce than any other we visited, along with local produce, cage-free eggs and lots of information on the origins of the food. You also can find tools for environmentally correct cleaning and a wide range of organic personal-care products.
LET'S EAT NOW
The prepared-food case usually has adventurous fare, such as a pomegranate-glazed turkey breast and vegetarian chopped "liver," and the cheese selection is great. For dessert, we'll have the rich Chocolate Velvet Boule, but you can find vegan apple pies, too.
RATING ***1/2
ONLINE Read shoppers' comments about what they like and dislike about these markets -- and post your own -- at baltimoresun.com / market
MARKET RESEARCH
EDDIE'S OF ROLAND PARK
6213 N. Charles St., Woodbrook / / 410-377-8040 / / www.eddiesofrolandpark.com FRESH FOOD / / What we really liked here was the amount of local fruit and vegetables. Eddie's showcases the late-summer harvest from Baltimore County and nearby Pennsylvania farms, including corn, tomatoes, squash and peaches.
RATING ***1/2
SERVICE / / An employee greets you at the door and wishes you well on the way out. Employees didn't hesitate to give help when asked, and often volunteered unsolicited. Upon checkout, an employee leads you to the least-crowded lane.
RATING ****
NAVIGATION / / Parking can sometimes be tricky with pedestrians afoot and cars backing out of spaces. Traffic often backs up onto Charles Street because cars can't turn into the lot quickly. Navigating the grocery aisles is easy, but things sometimes get hairy at peak times in produce and the deli.
RATING ***1/2
TASTE TEST / / The prepared crab cake ($9.99) had moist, flavorful chunks of jumbo lump meat and was our favorite of the group. A Triple Chocolate Mousse Bar ($3.99) fell apart during transport, and we detected no real mousse, just thick layers of icing. Still, it tasted good.
RATING ****
PRICE OF OUR MARKET BASKET (SEE "ABOUT THE STORY" BELOW) / / $20.75. Note: There was no store-brand peanut butter; we bought Jif.
GRAUL'S MARKET
7713 Bellona Ave., Ruxton / / 410-823-6077 / / graulsmarket.com FRESH FOOD / / The meat department will do any specialty preparation. The cheese selection is small, but there are some surprises, including a selection of fruit pastes and nuts such as Marcona almonds to round out a cheese platter. Local peppers, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini were displayed from One Straw Farm; other organic produce is limited (look for the little green markers).
RATING***
SERVICE / / The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. The employee behind the seafood case took a particular interest in a customer's recipe for gumbo, offered a suggestion for the dish and explained what file is. The clerk at the cheese counter offered guidance on Italian burrata.
RATING ****
NAVIGATION / / The store has a logical flow, but the aisles are a bit narrow; it's a tight squeeze when there is more than one cart.
RATING **1/2
TASTE TEST / / The crab cake ($7.99) was nicely rounded and of average size. It was tasty and not overly seasoned. (We passed on the recommendation to reheat it in the microwave.) The buttercream birthday cake ($10.99) was moist, buttery and much better than the standard supermarket version. RATING ***
PRICE OF OUR MARKET BASKET / / $19.95. Note: There was no store-brand peanut butter, so we bought Jif.
THE FRESH MARKET
2510 Quarry Lake Drive, Pikesville / / 410-580-1930 / / freshmarket.com
FRESH FOOD / / We liked the selection and all the informative signs in the meat and seafood cases, pointing us to grass-fed or wheat-fed, wild or farmed, kosher, Hereford or previously frozen. Overall produce quality was good, but local produce was sparse -- only tomatoes and corn when we visited.
RATING ***1/2
SERVICE / / The new kids on the block take the Congeniality Award. The deli clerk asked how we wanted our turkey sliced without prompting, the chef at the rotisserie exuberantly offered a just-off-the-spit taste of a turkey breast, and a cashier walked over and asked if we needed help because we looked a little lost. She led us to the bottled gravy we'd been seeking.
RATING ****
NAVIGATION / / The store is open and airy, which makes it easy to move around. The design avoids the standard line of aisles, with a grouping of foods that reminds us of a European market.
RATING ****
TASTE TEST / / The Maryland Jumbo Lump Crab Cake ($3.99) was an uncooked, slightly flattened smallish cake with pieces of red pepper. When we prepared it at home, the taste and texture of the crab cake were OK, but nothing special. We also tasted a napoleon ($2.29) that barely survived the trip home in its too-small container. The pastry layers were tough and the overall taste was too sweet.
RATING **
PRICE OF OUR MARKET BASKET / / $18.03. Note: There was no store-brand peanut butter, so we bought Jif. Turkey was on sale for 90 cents less a pound than the regular price.
WEGMANS
122 Shawan Road, Hunt Valley / / 410-773-3900 / / wegmans.com
FRESH FOOD / / It's hard to beat the selection here. The cheese tortes and stuffed dates and figs are like edible jewels. The meat case had every fathomable cut, though we wished for more humanely raised and grass-fed options. At the seafood case, almost every fish was labeled with how it was caught, and there were lots of local and organic produce.
RATING****
SERVICE / / Despite the crowds, there was always someone available to help. Produce employees gave their own recipe ideas for tamarind -- and would we like a sample? The fellow behind the meat counter readily explained how meat was packaged.
RATING ***
NAVIGATION / / Wegmans is a victim of its own success. It's really three stores in one (grocery, prepared foods and natural / ethnic market), and that makes it hard to get through the whole thing. If you forget something early on, you almost don't want to go back for it. Between the strolling gawkers and time-pressed shoppers, it's a bit like Grand Central Station.
RATING **
TASTE TEST / / The "ultimate crab cake" ($9.99) was mostly jumbo lump with very little filler but unfortunately very little spice. A side of remoulade sauce helped, but overall this crab cake wasn't quite worth the money. A Chocolate Dome ($5) was satisfyingly rich, although we had to scrape icing off the box because the pastry slid around during transport.
RATING **1/2
PRICE OF OUR MARKET BASKET / / $16.95; the least expensive of the stores we visited.
WHOLE FOODS MARKET
1330 Smith Ave., Mount Washington / / 410-532-6700 / / wholefoodsmarket.com
FRESH FOOD / / Whole Foods has the most organic produce of any store we visited, but the market stretches the definition of "local" produce with New Jersey cucumbers. At the impressive seafood case, an employee helped a customer determine which of the four varieties of salmon would appeal most to dinner-party guests.
RATING ***1/2
SERVICE / / A mixed bag. Two seafood clerks introduced themselves by name and got into a friendly disagreement over who would offer "great" service, and who would offer "stupendous" service. But when we rang the bell for the butcher, our calls went unanswered even though we could see employees milling about.
RATING **
NAVIGATION / / The single-file entry sets the tone for close quarters ahead. A busy day shopping here can be like plodding through a maze -- a very crowded, stressful maze.
RATING **
TASTE TEST / / Prepared crab cakes were not available, so we cooked the $9.99 crab cake ourselves. Although it fell apart when we flipped it and again when we served it, the taste made up for that. The jumbo lump meat was fresh-tasting; the chile-lime mayonnaise holding the lumps together packed a spicy punch but was almost too acidic. A Chocolate Velvet Boule ($4.49) was light yet rich-tasting -- a good balance between cake and icing.
RATING ****
PRICE OF OUR MARKET BASKET / / $20.57. Note: Arnold bread wasn't available, so we bought the store brand 100 percent whole wheat; there were no Granny Smith apples, so we bought Ginger Gold.
ABOUT THE STORY
Our testers made their store visits anonymously over the past few weeks. To develop their ratings, they recorded such details as how long it took to get a parking space, how employees responded to questions and how easily they could get around each store. The basket of goods they bought included peanut butter (store brand if available), a pound of sliced, roasted deli turkey, a quart of milk, a loaf of Arnold whole-wheat bread and a pound of Granny Smith apples. They sampled the store's crab cake and a signature dessert.
kate.shatzkin@baltsun.com
joannah.hill@baltsun.com
tracey.logsdon@baltsun.com