Just wow! I am so blessed to have left my phone in the Uber. Waiting for its return, I had the…read moreextra moment to notice all the exceptional things about this huge, tiny corner market:
* IMMACULATE premises;
* Family vibe that made this out-of-towner feel as though he'd just pulled in the drive on Thanksgiving;
* REAL food (hot dogs, soup, etc.) that you serve yourself with tongs and labels -- not thrown in a bag;
* Orderly, well-stocked shelves that suggest they really care about the customer experience to a fault;
* Incandescent lighting that creates ambience; as opposed to fluorescent lighting with its energy-robbing frequency and irritating buzz;
* Family vibe with genuine smiles and contagious, conversational spirits to back them up;;
* Inventory well-stocked with things you need, even things you didn't know you needed;
* Awesome coffee kept hot and fresh in thermos dispensers, not stewed into mud on a burner - accompanied by a great selection of creamers;
* A tasteful and eclectic beer selection meant to appeal to beer connoisseurs.with a wide selection in right-sized containers, not ginormous bottles of Icehouse meant to separate vulnerable people from their last few dollars;
* Huge, crystalline windows that make the magic of this store evident even from the street, only partially obscured by whimsical, bold-colored characters lovingly festooned by a real artist! No vinyl clings that take mere seconds to apply;
* Acoustic peace, interrupted only by laughter, and the stage directions of a papa bear obsessing over everything being sensibly stocked and presented; even the door annunciator sounds like a doorbell. When you open the door at a 7-Eleven, the pitch-challenged chime suggests you just did something wrong (and you did - make no mistake - lol);
* A steady flow of local souls whom they know fondly, and who seem to know them fondly...
I could bullet-point all day, but I have to get moving. My only disappointment of the visit found itself in Yelp forcing me to tag this as a "convenience store" and not a corner market, or bodega as it is proudly identified in its name. The difference is more than linguistic. The distinction is spiritual, generational. Robotic vendors of the future will be woefully incapable of serving this human grace with such stewardship, such ambassadorship.
With no gamble on hyperbole, you owe yourself a visit - a lifetime of visits, even if it means walking or driving a couple of extra minutes.
Bring your kids! Show them how it used to be done right. That humans pulled this off.
Simply remarkable.
*****
Addendum. I've only done like four Yelp reviews since God was a Boy Scout. I could barely contain my Asperger's excitement for them to take the 90 seconds it would have taken to read their first Yelp presence, for in fact, they had written it. But in under an hour, their warm greeting had yielded to something between irritated dismissiveness and the bum's rush. I'd tried my level best to bless their blessing back, and now felt like a pesky gnat. They were palpably relieved to see me leave.
Do go, but make it snappy. Even in a place as exceptional as Blue Ridge Bodega, the robot spirit has its toes in the door.
It's later than you think.
******
That last bit may have been unduly cranky. I was sleep-deprived and the Snickers had made me gassy. I've moved on to other places, so if you have a marvelous experience, please add your review!
