After the destruction of the Frankfort staple that was Enrico's Italian Restaurant, I (as well as probably most of Will County) thought that what ever was taking it's place better be good...
When I found out what it was, and did a little research in my spare time, I was pleasantly surprised, since the building they were putting up looked more like a warehouse than it did a grocery store.
And being that the excitement of going to Whole Foods in Orland Park wore off of me ($9.99 for Home Run Inn pizza and no xylitol? COME ON!!!) and there was a store that may be able to match my love for Brookehaven Marketplace closer to my house, I decided to check it out...
So, I go in there on a Wednesday night, to get a few items before they closed. From what I saw, their prices were reasonable, but I didn't have a lot of time to look around, so I didn't do a whole lot of browsing...
I just knew two things:
1.) This place is HUGE
2.) I loved how everyone was dressed in a white collared shirt, black neck tie, black pants, and black shoes...VERY CLASSY
So, I stopped by in here again today to do my normal Thursday morning shopping
(by the way, they open at 6:00am...which is AWESOME!)
The first place I went to was the coffee bar, where I was greeted by three lovely ladies. They mentioned that the store was set up kinda like they have it in Italy: you may get a sandwich, a coffee (their Americano was pretty good), sit at one of the several cafe tables they have in the corner, then go shop.
It was there that you heard the Italian music playing, and when you look around, you could see the different things Mariano's had to offer: a sushi bar, the coffee bar (duh!), fresh bakers, produce, meats, cheeses etc. etc.
It was pretty amazing and the floor plan is very open...
If you're into having a few glasses of wine, or a beer with your family, they have the biggest (and very organized) alcohol section next to maybe Binny's. Though I don't drink, it was pretty impressive.
Their ethnic foods section (which is about two aisles long) was great as well, with a good selection of foods, accented by a little cultural music getting pumped in over the store's normal background music...and the rotating projection being shined on the floor gave it a nice touch as well...
I REALLY like this place! It's only been open for a couple of days, but it's very clean, they have a good selection of fresh foods, the floor plan (as I stated before) is open, and I'm sure there's a lot of other things that I forgot to mention...
This MAY be my new go-to store for grocery shopping... read more