Today, I took the time to make a thorough shopping trip to the new Pittsburgh Whole Foods store, on 5880 Centre Avenue in East Liberty. Whole Foods specializes in natural and organic foods.
First, a disclaimer: I've heard good things about both the East End Food Co-op and McGinnis Sisters, but I've been to neither store. Primarily, I'm comparing Whole Foods to the Strip District, and the more upscale locations of common grocery store chains (e.g., the Waterworks Giant Eagle).
Probably the thing I'm pickiest about when it comes to grocery stores is produce. I was forced to help out on my uncle's farm during my childhood, and although I was far from appreciative at the time, as a result of that experience, I know what good, fresh produce is and how it tastes.
As a result, finding what I consider to be good produce in Pittsburgh has always been a challenge, because my definition of "good produce" is very demanding. While lots of fresh produce no doubt moves through the Strip District, the good stuff is all wholesale; the retail produce sold in the Strip is predominately the stuff that no wholesaler buyer wanted. In my experience, retail grocery stores are hit-and-miss; sometimes they'll have good produce, other times not. (Some stores always seem to have poor produce.)
I was pleased to discover that Whole Foods has excellent produce—the best I've yet seen in Pittsburgh. For example, I found ripe tangerines and pears, fresh snow pea pods, beautiful red/yellow/orange Holland bell peppers, and some good-looking asparagus. As an added bonus, a good portion of the available produce is organic. (To eliminate any potential confusion, all produce is clearly labeled as either "organic" or "conventional".)
Not only is Whole Food's produce top-quality, but Whole Foods has a wide assortment of produce. For example, Whole Foods had fresh water chestnuts (which up to this point, I haven't seen outside of Asian grocery stores), and an impressive assortment of exotic mushrooms.
As far as I'm concerned, Whole Foods is the place for produce. While there are a few other stores I wish to check out (see my disclaimer at the beginning of this review), I suspect from this point forward I'll be buying most of my produce from Whole Foods.
While Whole Foods' seafood section was fairly small, all of the seafood I could see there looked extremely fresh. They also had several hot soups, as well as bulk frozen seafood (which included several varieties of dim sum). I picked up some humble bluefish fillets, some seafood sausage, and one pound of frozen Shomai shrimp (dim sum). The bluefish was incredibly fresh (well-formed, and without the slightest trace of any odor) and delicious, and the Shomai shrimp was very tasty, with plenty of shrimp. (I haven't eaten the seafood sausage yet.)
Is Whole Foods' seafood section a serious competitor to Benkovitz Seafoods or Wholey's? Well, it depends. Benkovitz and Wholey's both beat Whole Foods when it comes to quantity and selection. (This is inevitable; at least for the Pittsburgh location, Whole Foods simply doesn't have the size to compete.)
However, for quality of fish, I think Whole Foods might be better. (I've been to Benkovitz and Wholey's many times, so I'll need to visit Whole Foods more to be able to tell for certain.) Thanks to being spoiled by Mr. Shu at Umi, I can pick out fresh, top-quality seafood, and that's what Whole Foods had in their display case.
Additionally, I picked the bluefish deliberately (as a test of sorts), because the quality of bluefish is highly dependent on its freshness and handling. (Bluefish needs to be bled and cleaned immediately after being caught; the meat spoils quickly and thus needs to be kept strictly refrigerated in order to prevent scombroid poisoning.) I've never seen either Benkovitz or Wholey's sell bluefish, and I suspect the reason they don't is because bluefish's cleaning and handling demands are too rigorous. Yet Whole Foods' bluefish was absolutely fresh and delicious; I suffered no ill effects from eating it.
Tentatively, I think Whole Foods is probably a notch above in quality than either Benkovitz or Wholey's, even though I generally think that both Benkovitz or Wholey's sell good seafood. Also, because of Whole Foods' position on seafood sustainability, they're probably a better choice for environmentally-conscious seafood shoppers. On the other hand, for sheer quantity and selection, Benkovitz and Wholey's are better choices.
I didn't make any purchases at the meat department, but what I saw seemed comparable (or better) to meat departments in high-end grocery stores (e.g., the Waterworks Giant Eagle).
Whole Foods carries Bell & Evens chicken and Coleman Natural Beef. Some portion of their beef is dry-aged. (In fact, they had a display case full of dry-aging beef.)
I can think of places in the Strip District which have a larger selection of poultry and meats (such as Farmers Choice), but those places aren't offering antibiotic-free and GMO-free meats. The Waterworks Giant Eagle carries Bell & Evans chicken, and now Coleman Natural Beef, but not nearly to the extent that Whole Foods does.
Whole Foods' dairy section was roughly comparable to the dairy section in high-end grocery stores, but with many more organic products. (For example, Whole Foods seems to carry close to the complete line of products from Organic Valley (including their "Northeast Pastures" milk) and Horizon Organic.
Whole Foods' cheese section was probably my biggest surprise—it could probably give Pennsylvania Macaroni Company (where I typically buy my cheese) a run for their money. (Anyone who's been to Penn Mac knows that's far from an easy thing to do.)
Additionally, Whole Foods features goes out of their way to sell organic cheese, and cheese made with non-animal enzymes.
I'll give Whole Foods credit for having a good selection of spices, but Penzeys Spices still reigns supreme. (If you haven't yet been to their Forbes Avenue location in Squirrel Hill, go there now!)
All of Whole Foods' prepared foods looked very good. I made myself a salad at their make-your-own salad bar. (I didn't count exactly, but the salad bar contained upward of thirty items.) As an added bonus, one of the dressings they had was fresh chunky bleu cheese.
According to the menu I picked up, Whole Foods is featuring sushi from Umi.
What, exactly, does that mean? I don't know. I heavily doubt it means that Mr. Shu is making their sushi. It might mean that Whole Foods is using Shu's recipes, or that Whole Foods and Big Burrito are collaborating on buying sushi-grade seafood. (If/when I find out, I'll update this section.)
Regardless, the sushi was very good—better than a few sushi restaurants I've been to, in fact. It was also very expensive ($15 for a 5-piece nigiri and 6-piece maki combo), but if this indeed a collaboration with Umi, then that doesn't surprise me.
I can only judge Whole Foods against other groceries stores (as I rarely go to dedicated bakeries), but to me, Whole Foods' pastries beat the pants off of Giant Eagle's.
For example, I've purchased pumpkin pies at Giant Eagle. The ingredients read like a pharmaceutical company, and they use corn syrup instead of (more expensive due to protectionism) cane sugar, but it's not bad. In contrast, the Whole Foods pumpkin pie I picked up had nothing but pure and natural ingredients (pumpkin, flour, eggs, cane sugar, butter, etc.), and it was possibly the best pumpkin pie I've ever eaten.
My suspicion is that Whole Foods' pastries will compare favorably to real bakeries, but as I said, I rarely shop at bakeries, so I have no way of knowing for sure.
This is the only area in which I was disappointed with Whole Foods: they have no deli. If you want want sliced meats and cheeses, there's a very small section of prepackaged plastic-wrapped items, but that's it. If you want a half a pound of, say, some thick-sliced Canadian maple ham, you're going to have to go to some other grocery store to get it.
I'll cut Whole Foods some slack, though, because I can understand why they decided to eschew a traditional deli: it would've taken up a lot of space, and it would've been difficult to best what other grocery stores already offer.
Whole Foods eschews most name-brand grocery items in favor of natural and organic items. (That is, after all, what they specialize in.) That can be a good thing if you're looking for organic macaroni and cheese, paper towels made with recycled paper, or non-petroleum-based laundry detergent; it's not a good thing if you're looking for Doritos, Chef Boyardee, Kraft, Campbell's Soup, Ragu, Tide with bleach, etc.
Also, excluding Whole Foods' skin care section, there's little in the way of non-food items. Medications, shaving products, infant care products, et. al. were nowhere to be found.
Whole Foods had what looked to be a decent coffee section, but since I don't like coffee, I avoided it.
The skin care section looked to have many froufrou things in it. It also smelled like a potpourri bomb exploded in it, so I avoided the entire section.
While it's true that organic and natural foods tend to be more expensive than their conventional counterparts, in general, for similar items, I think Whole Foods' prices were about the same as other grocery stores.
For example, most of Whole Foods' produce cost about the same as the produce at the Waterworks Giant Eagle. Prices of seafood items were roughly comparable to Benkovitz; meat prices were comparable to the Waterworks Giant Eagle.
Some things were definitely more expensive: the pumpkin pie was $10, and the sushi was $15.
Overall, I think Whole Foods has lived up to the hype that surrounded the opening of the store. There are still some (inconveniently) big crowds due to the novelty, but hopefully the traffic will drop to a reasonable level once the novelty wears off.
My advice: if you like food, and you don't mind shopping for food, check Whole Foods out.
(Note: Whole Foods' web page states that the store is open until 22:00 (10:00pm) daily, but I believe it's only open until 21:00 (9:00pm) daily.)
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