Break out the Bubbly! – New Leaf Community Market set to open in Evergreen Feb 1

My local neighborhood has been without a nearby grocery store for over a year and a half. You probably remember me whining about this missing resource in my previous posts: Whole Foods Almaden and the announcement of New Leaf Evergreen.

The upside of this grocery store deprivation is that I know my neighbors so much better – we have to borrow staples from each other all the time, rather than drive 45 minutes round trip to buy a dozen eggs.

But in my less optimistic moments, not having a grocery store has felt like going on a restrictive diet and suddenly craving the forbidden foods exponentially more than you ever did before. Our closest store is a Lucky or an old, unremodeled Safeway. For a food-obsessed person like me this has been torture! Keep in mind, my idea of a fun break is to stop at an interesting grocery store and tool around in it for an hour just reading labels and imagining what I might do with an ingredient I’ve never seen before.

I feed my food imagination by talking to the butcher, tasting samples from the deli, asking questions of the cheese specialist, or finding a new-fangled superfood grain to test out. Well finally, I will be getting this sustenance and so much more – a juice bar, wine expertise, healthy pre-made foods hot and cold, lots of local and organic produce and the list goes on. This afternoon, I stopped by to see the progress and New Leaf’s marketing coordinator, Naomi Dresser, welcomed me in for a sneak peek and a brief photo session. I’m also including a link to all the classes and events they have planned to get us acclimated to the new store.

OMG! – the anticipation is palpable! Welcome to the neighborhood New Leaf – you better be here to stay!