Alfalfa's Is Open!!!

Today's the grand opening of the reinvention of Alfalfa's at its first location, Broadway and Arapahoe, and they've re-envisioned it with style. It's a splendid store, with everything you'd expect from it, and more. It contains the usual suspects, like handsome stations for charcuterie, pasta, and cheese, coffee and tea, juice, and a tempting bakery and salad bar. It also has features that blew me away for an independent, local store of its size, like the Il Forno station for wood fired pizzas and other goodies, and a sustainable sushi bar, bringing Sushi Zanmai right to the shopping cart. But the one that totally got me was the artisan-produced oil and vinegar station as the eye-popping entrance to the bulk aisle. Beautiful offerings of oils and vinegars, mostly organic, from around the world, yours to pour into your own container or the reusable bottles they sold there at the super reasonable prices of $1 (smaller) or $2 (large for the uber-oil consumer, since you'd want this to stay fresh). I hope they continue to have an active sampling program there, as they were doing this morning, since the rich variety of choices deserves to be tried before taking home.

The store itself is pleasant, with a bit of a flashback in placement of certain departments like produce, meat, frozen, and the restrooms. I'd agree with a comment I heard from one shopper, that it's much more open, with wider aisles, than the old store. I was also happy to see many familiar faces at work, with many returning managers, and also the staff, including the nicest produce stocker I know. Seems like a statement there, with so many former employees wanting to return.

As for prices, that will take a little while to judge. My initial gut reaction is that they might edge closer to Whole Foods than to something like Sprouts or Sunflower, but the experience and selection also headed in that direction too. I did get a beautiful bunch of organic rainbow chard for $1.50 (sale pointed out by my favorite produce guy), and I saw Meyer Angus ribeyes on sale for the very good price of $9.99 a pound. The fish counter was too tempting though, so I sprang for a gorgeous piece of fresh swordfish at a pretty reasonable price instead. Their printed sale flyer (good through May 3rd) had just arrived as I was leaving, and I see deals definitely worth returning for. Organic spring mix is stunning at $1.99 a pound, as are organic on-the-vine tomatoes for $2.49 a pound, and organic green onions 50 cents a bunch (there's tomorrow's salad right there!). The aforementioned chard and ribeye deals are in the flyer, as is previously frozen Bristol Bay wild caught sockeye salmon for $7.99 a pound, plus some other good looking deals. They supposedly have their own wine, beer, and spirits section, with deals advertised in the flyer, but I wasn't able to locate it in the store. Perhaps a separate entrance is required for such a thing, or it has a secret door, or maybe I just missed it.

They're doing sampling and drawings for gift baskets and the like, but no special bag giveaway today, which is probably appropriate. We have to remember that this isn't the opening of the umpteenth store of a chain stretching across the country; this is the opening of our one and only Alfalfa's. And it's a good one.