Lucky's Market is open

I didn't go into the next door wine store, but the market is open for business today. It's Earthfare but bigger, Whole Foodsian in bulk foods, bakery, meat, Fresh Market-like in a way too. Also kind of reminded me of Wild Oats. This isn't going to be your weekly shopping destination probably, but it's got some allure. Beautiful produce section (but no cilantro?), prices seem comperable to EF, WF, FM. Sale items are very reasonable. Pet food section is pretty much a dup of Earthfare (I am always looking for dogfood options). Lots of local goods scattered around the store, BBC beer in the aisles. Out front are several picnic tables where I'm guessing you can sit and eat. Salad bar looked really good, antipasti bar looked good as well. Candy section reminded me of Fresh Market. Some interesting selections in the house prepared food deli case. Checkout was an adventure, I don't think a single thing rang up as what it was supposed to be. Lots of trainers wandering around to help with stuff like that. Plenty of parking, plenty of carts. Their grand opening is tomorrow, and after living through TJ's opening, I think the day before preview is just fine.

Thanks for the update! We had said we wouldn't go tomorrow for the actual grand opening but ended up stopping by this afternoon. It's certainly going to become one of our go to stores. From what we saw today we will probably end up having it replace Whole Foods. It's much more convenient to us and there certainly isn't as much traffic around it and there is Whole Foods. The staff was much more friendly than the staff at Whole Foods ever has been and they have a great selection of almost everything. Pricing looks about the same as there competitions. We met the wife of the couple who started the chain and had a very nice conversation with her.

I stopped by today to to check it out and found to sale items (That run Wednesday to Tuesday) to be very competitive with Kroger and Meijers. A pint of blueberries for a buck! And they have bacon end pieces for 1.99 a #! they have great prices on marinated chicken too. Some of the seafood offerings were over priced but still less other places.
I see myself shopping there a lot more than I ever did at Whole Paycheck....

Dan mentioning the bacon reminded me of how good it was. They spoke it themselves in the store. They were giving out samples so we tried the honey/orange flavored one and it was excellent! At $5.99/lb it's certainly competitive with any of the other meat counter Bacons found in town and in my opinion much better!

Quick question: Where is Lucky' s Market?

Quick question: Where is Lucky' s Market?

In the shopping center that includes Contemporary Galleries and The Bristol. Corner of Hurstbourne and Shelbyville Rds.

...and which is also home to the pretty excellent Bombay Grill (http://www.bombaygrillky.com/)

and the Brasserie Provence (http://brasserieprovence.com/)

$7.99 growler refills. 4 beers. Bar like set up with about 6 stools in the middle of the store. $8.49 for 6 pack of west 6 IPA. Very nice friendly staff. Spirit store next door. Lots of sales like $1.50 pizza slices. Sushi. Baguettes for $1.50. Walked through today. Might sample and buy a few things tomorrow.

It's nice to see that shopping center coming back to life. For a couple years there it was down to only two or three tenants and was starting to look pretty sorry.

Like Ellen, I did a basic sort of "walk through" yesterday just to get a feel for the store. I did buy the aforementioned $0.99 blueberries and I also bought a rather large container of peeled and sliced fresh kiwi. I was shocked to see that it was only $1.81 for the entire container, but it turns out they had the last laugh because when I got home and tried it, it was no where near ripe enough! It tasted so sour I couldn't even eat it.

Despite that, I was pleased with the selection and, as a native Texan, I was pleasantly surprised to see pints of Blue Bell ice cream for sale.

Another item of note was that their 85/15 ground beef was $1.67 per lb and the grass fed ground beef was $2.67 per lb. I asked the cashier what they anticipated the change to be price wise and he told me they plan to keep prices on the ground beef about that low.

I had to hitch up the mules and load the Conestoga wagon to go into town for some trading today and as "luck" would have it I found myself in the vicinity of Lucky's.

Aside from a few "loss leaders" (the previously mentioned ground beef, bacon, blueberries, etc) the prices weren't too impressive...e.g. Limes for a $1.49 each (bought them on the way home for .99)...The deli can't hold a candle to Whole Paycheck and for the money I'll take my meat dollars to Fresh Market. Their selection of "local" products was pretty common (Kenny's Cheese, a few condiments and/or sauce items, etc)...I guess I really didn't notice anything "local" you can't find in a dozen other local establishments. Otherwise the shelves are stocked with the usual cookie cutter Whole Paycheck/Rainbow Blossom/Trader Joe's; 7-Grain-Kale-Soy-Tofurkey-Probiotic-Natural-Products-Grown-By-Organic-Hippies-in-a-Gluten-Antibiotic-Peanut-Hormone-free-Free-Trade-Zone.

The one (non-local) product I came across during my quick walk through that I haven't seen anywhere else in town is Salt Lick BBQ sauce. We mail order ours, so being able to grab a bottle of their famous mustard based sauce locally is a huge improvement. Salt Lick BBQ is my absolute favorite BBQ in the country and is the one thing I miss most from Texas.

Now, I'm disappointed and won't go out of my way just because there are so many choices. Did buy the $8.49 six pack of West 6 IPA - two of them. The baquette was pretty good - not as good as Earth Fare. Blueberries were not perfect but edible. Only bought one $0.88 pack.
But the smoked ham. Whoa. Nice looking pieces in the case. Gave me a taste. I was looking for a 1/2 lb of country ham but they carry this. Well, what they gave me - of course, didn't look until later at home - is almost inedible. First slice or two looked like maybe I could salvage half of each slice for sandwiches, but as I worked my way through it - nothing but hard fat and gristle. Worthless. AND for the first time ever, I can't find my receipt. Thought they put it in my bag. Anyway, I complained on FB.
So, I felt like I was also deceived because they gave me the worst possible slices after showing me a sample. I'll try frying it and cooking eggs this weekend.
FYI They haven't had their pint glasses yet for serving beer. My husband hasn't been so we might go in tonight to check out the beer for a growler fill - $7.90 as we head to Whole Foods perhaps for Friday Night Flights. (Also love Trader Joe's freezer foods so I don't think they can compete with that. Whole Foods I buy occassionally, always looking for sliders. I buy a few things at Paul's. I buy less and less at Kroger unless I'm in the mood to exercise in doors since the two newly refurbished ones near me are really big.)