Last night I discovered Berkeley Bowl and I am in love! To my NYC Upper Westside Crew - Berkeley Bowl makes Fairway look like Waldbaums. It is twice as big (as the 125th market) and has rows and rows of exotic fruit and veggies. And as for variety, for example, they don't just stock fresh mint - they stock four kinds of fresh mint. The interesting - tho not surprising -- cultural difference is that BB focuses on more items for cooking from scratch and Fairway has more prepared gourmet items. They have three aisles of bulk food alone.
So, my apologies Fairway, I feel a bit like a disloyal Upper Westsider- but alas, you can no longer claim to be like "no other market".
Waldbaum's!
Haven't heard that name in YEARS.
Welcome to the world of non-stealth blogging...it's about time :)
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | May 14, 2005 at 09:00 AM
Yes, but do they have the Fairway Cafe & Steakhouse with its oh-so-good dinners and oh-so-reasonable fixed price dinner? The look on my father's face when he had to go up to the second floor of a grocery store for dinner was priceless. http://www.fairwaymarket.com/steakhousecafe.cfm
Posted by: Staci Krame | May 14, 2005 at 05:41 PM
As a fellow NY-er turned Bay Area-ite, I must join you in praise of the Berkeley Bowl. The produce section is absolutely overwhelming -- but in a delightful way. And as far as prepared food goes, I've found BB does carry a wide variety of frozen stuff (the hard-to-find Amy's Organic varieties, for example) that helps out on those weekday nights.
Posted by: Pamela | May 16, 2005 at 09:37 AM
Ha - the second floor of a grocery store--goodpoint!
Posted by: Deb | May 16, 2005 at 06:39 PM