Self Service Buffets are Back!
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There's a new Whole Foods Market, and it couldn't be any stranger. When I heard they were building a store here, I was a bit surprised. Whole Foods caters to a delusional, higher income clientele; this is an area with Hyatt Place and Embassy Suites where cretins stay the night before a cruise.
While it was being built, I figured they'd have a parking lot inside and it would be a full shopping center; but this is just a store on the corner. You have to park in a parking garage, ala Publix in Brickell.
The sign says free customer parking; currently the gates just open for everyone and you don't have to get a ticket. In the future you'll probably have to buy something to get your parking validated (as is the case in Brickell).
The garage is clean and bright and not a sweatbox like the Las Olas Publix garage.
You take an escalator down to the store, which is on the street level.
The big lobby is on the corner of SE 17th and US1, where there is absolutely no foot traffic. It's like this store was designed randomly without knowledge of the location.
Turn left and you see a very large supermarket.
To be honest I wasn't impressed with the produce. Some pretty ratty looking Rapini and 50 cents higher than Fresh Market. I passed on the Broccoli Rabe.
They have a much larger wine section than the other Fort Lauderdale store, but not much variety in the Italian Wine section. I've never bought wine at Whole Foods.
The aisles are wider than the other Whole Food stores, which make it more Covid friendly
A large specialty cheese section.
The meat and fish area is also much more spacious than other Whole Food stores.
Some comedy ensued in this area. A woman was looking at "stew meat" which was on sale; a guy from behind the counter came out to help her and actually said the following: "If I was making a stew, I'd make it with Rib Eye". He then walks her over to the counter and shows her show premium ribeye for like $18/lb. I guess these guys are on commission, so watch out if you're clueless about meat.
The buffet area is essentially closed, which is good riddance if you ask me. They have stuff prepackaged on the buffet and a server who can fetch you some soup, but it's not the same as the usual self serve.
One bright spot are the ready to cook chicken wings. I bought a bag of these and they were very good; they got the buffalo sauce just right. I bought some jerk wings also but i threw them in the freezer for another time.
On my second visit I got some Jerk Wings, and they were also very good. Not too spicy or furry.
I made these "well done" in my air fryer with no oil; 28 minutes at 380 and 4 more at 400 degrees.
They have self-checkout, and you get a receipt for your parking, which you currently don't need, because the gate just opens as you approach.
The sign says "Right Turn Only" onto SE 17th, but both cars in front of me turned left. The signs don't apply in 2020.
