1 of 3 | The Crucolo Parade, held in October, is a popular community event hosted at Market Hall Foods grocery store in California. Photo courtesy of Market Hall Foods.
March 21 (UPI) -- Over at least the past decade, mainstream grocery outlets have been experimenting with new services like in-store dining, wine bars and interactive self-serve options, hoping to bring in more shoppers who ideally spend more money and time in the store.
Whole Foods, for example, has 30 full-service restaurants spread across its nearly 500 locations in the United States. The grocery chain also boasts more than 200 quick-service concepts, which in Atlanta later this year will include a Brazilian build-your-own churrasco bowl at its Midtown store. In addition to meat, vegetarian and vegan options will be available.
Other multi-service eateries like Time Out, Mariano's in Chicago, Eataly, the Chelsea Market in New York or Le Central in Montreal have embraced the food hall atmosphere, blending retail and dining seamlessly.
While grocers like Kroger, Albertson's and Publix now offer shoppers at some locations a place to stop for a beer, wine or mixed drink, Publix also recently dipped into the burrito business, launching nacho, burrito and bowl bars in some Florida stores.
Research provided by the Food Industry Association last year found consumers have also turned to grocery store food service as part of their daily meal planning, which has led to chains forming strategic partnerships to offer unique products, launch tangential mini-restaurants and collaborate on more pop-ups.
Crucolo at Market Hall Foods
Market Hall Foods, based in Oakland, Calif., opened in 1987 and has since become one of the nation's leading food specialty stores, thanks to its love of hard-to-find cheese.
Sara Wilson, managing partner of Market Hall Foods, said the store has evolved from a small gourmet store to a beloved Bay Area institution with an international reputation for hosting events largely because of the Italian cheese, Crucolo.
Wilson said Market Hall Foods now hosts events like author signings and food fests, which allow customers to sample new items. The establishment is one of only two shops in the United States to import Crucolo, making it a destination for cheese lovers around the world.
"Our customers have always been paramount and are some of our best ambassadors," Wilson said. "They bring their friends to our many special events, such as the Crucolo Parade and our upcoming Indie Food Fest in May, or join our Truffle Club, which is growing each year."
Durian Fruit and Goetta at Jungle Jim's International Market
Known for its wide variety of wild game options including alligator, deer and rattlesnake, Jungle Jim's, with Ohio locations in Cincinnati and Fairfield, has become an Ohio staple built around its collection of strange, exotic and rare foods from around the world.
The stores carry Durian fruit, which has been banned in some public places in Southeast Asia because of its potent smell. It's used in traditional Malay foods, candy and sweets like ice cream and mooncakes.
Jungle Jim's also carries goetta, a cornmeal sausage hybrid invented by the Germans who immigrated to Cincinnati. Popular in the city, and similar to Pennsylvanian scrapple and North Carolinian livermush, it was created to stretch food supplies and cooked with pinhead oats instead of cornmeal. Today, it's used as toppings on pizza and local burgers.
Johl Mo Mo at Saraga International Grocery
When Saraga opened in Greenwood, Ohio, in 2012, Korean brothers John and Bong Sung welcomed Mo Mo Ghar, an Asian food stand run by 49-year-old Tibetan woman Phintso Lama.
Since then, it's been featured on several TV shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and won praise from food critics across the country. In a profile in Bon Appetit, Lama estimated that she sells thousands of hand-made dumplings each day.
Lama's signature dish is Johl Mo Mo, Tibetan steamed dumplings filled with chicken and enrobed in a spicy fenugreek tomato sauce. Since the business was founded in 1994, Saraga, which means "living" in Korean, has grown to include several locations that carry an immense collection of rare halal meats, spices and products that usually can be found in niche food stores around the world.
Home cooked meals at Boulineau's
Founded just after World War II, Boulineau's IGA Grocery Store has operated as a privately owned tourist attraction and grocery store in Cherry Grove, S.C., for decades. While the site features a full service grocery store, it's become more of a tourist attraction complex that feature separate stores for snacks, toys, ice cream and gifts.
One of the biggest draws, Boulineau's Cafeteria attracts crowds hungry for lunch and dinner every day with a mix of traditional Southern dishes like fried chicken, baked pork chops, backbone and rice, and prime rib specials.
Organic and sustainably sourced food at Mom's
Founded in 1987 in Rockville, Md., with a focus on organic foods, Mom's has grown to include 11 Maryland locations and others in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Known for its strict oversight of what it sells, Mom's is a go-to shopping spot for everything organic and sustainably farmed.
Up until fairly recently, the Mom's location in College Park, Md., hosted a huge pinball arcade on site, but in December the space was closed thanks to a decision by the landlord. In addition to a wide variety of foods, Mom's roasts its own organic coffee in-house and even sells cricket and mealworm products.
