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Eat Well, Cook Well, Shop Well

Written by RetailWire Staff

City Grocery in Oxford, MS and American Grocery in Greenville, SC are two restaurants that pride themselves on sourcing top quality ingredients for their fine dining offerings. Their names imply that if raw materials don't actually come directly from a retail grocer, they could.

City Grocery made intriguing use of the word "grocery," encouraging diners to buy — and use — local produce. Opened in 1992, Chef John Currence has organized a cooperative and market for local farmers as well as a network of local restaurants using their produce. The company also started a culinary education program in public schools.

American Grocery Restaurant boasts of serving "refined American Seasonal Cuisine sourced from local and regional farms and artisan producers from within the United States" accompanied by "small production boutique wines." It has had 100 reviews on opentable.com giving it a 4.5 star rating since Feb. 20, 2013. Again, we see a loose definition, perhaps, of "grocery."

The recently opened 85-seat Amore in Rochester, NY, is literally next door to its chief supplier, a new Wegmans from which all ingredients are sourced. Here, everything in the kitchen is transformed by the chef into an array of tantalizing choices with ingredients customers can buy themselves.

In contrast to the modernity and anonymity of most grocery cafes, these three have taken unique approaches to history and culture. Wegmans' new look was created by "Rochester-region artisans and interior designers," according to the Democrat and Chronicle. Design consultant and CEO's wife, Stency Wegman, wanted to "re-create the feeling that this is an old building restored from ruin" with "Italian estate-style architecture." Spokeswoman Jo Natale described it as evocative of European restaurants researched by a team sent to tour rural Italy and Switzerland.

The venture conveniently offers both internal and external access to the adjoining grocery much the same way as its Next Door Bar & Grill on Monroe Avenue in Pittsford, NY. Wegmans' Executive Chef, Russell Ferguson, says "the grocery will fill an auxiliary role for the restaurant." Not to mention demonstrating to diners just what can be done with all the food on the grocer's shelves.

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