More Lavish Than Thou--Texas' Central Market

A while back we were wandering through the HQ and flagship store of Whole Foods, in Austin, Texas, our tongues hanging out at the over-the-top displays, the islands where chefs cooked assorted aromatic cuisines, and so on, when we bumped into a woman who waved a hand at it all and said--"This is nothing compared to Central Market."

Hmm. We are heading to one of the Central Market locations in the Dallas area this week. And have just noticed that Central, along with a few others, has been named "Outstanding Specialty Food Retailer," by the National Association for Specialty Food Trade.  ( NASFT produces  Fancy Food Shows around the country, including the one in San Francisco we have attended a few times, waddling away fatter and happier, and laden with samples.)

According to the San Antonio Express News,

"The winners are the definition of a successful specialty food store: They provide excellent customer service, introduce their communities to products not found in mainstream grocery stores and strive to stock the highest-quality, exclusive products that are not mass-produced," said New York-based NASFT. "

Other winners--New York's Fairway Market, Chicago's Pastoral, Sickles Market in New Jersey, Ohio's Dorothy Lane Market and Utah's Liberty Heights Fresh.

These places could be terribly high end, of course, even a tad precious---the home page of NASFT is currently waxing lyrical about a Turkish pudding called sýtlaý. Whole Foods is hardly a discount food joint, for that matter. We will check it out.

ps  Central Market apparently offers 700 cheeses.............

( Run-of-the-mill take-home item from Central Market in photo--http://www.centralmarket.com/cm/cmCafeOnTheRun.jsp)

Comments

[Win]

Ah, the Fancy Food Shows.....San Francisco Convention Center....spending an entire weekend doing tastings (two dozen types of chocolate covered pretzels for example), samplings (gelati, vinegars, shortbread cookies, German sausages, Italian ham, French cheese, Hungarian peppers Assam teas....

[Kelly Mahoney]

700 cheeses? I might never leave. The woman that I profiled on my blog, Jennifer English, attended the show and had so much to say about it.

[KathyF]

I've been to Dorothy Lane Market. Nothing much there except high prices. I prefer Whole Foods, or better yet, that Sunflower Market place out on the West side--is it still there?

[Foodie]

Sunflower is doing fine, thankfully.