Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Harris Teeter Part II - the Pre-Opening



I just spent too much money on car repairs today, but I got my car back in a much better shape than before!  To celebrate, I took myself, with printed out ticket in hand, to the nicest free dinner in town on Tuesday night: the grand pre-opening of the new Harris Teeter.  I just cannot get over the fact that this is a TWO-STORY supermarket.


TWO STORIES!!!

I've never seen the tops of the food aisles before.  Even besides that, it was about as big as a Wegman's, and bigger than any of the other Harris Teeters I have visited before.  Plus there was a strange person walking around in an alligator costume (the store mascot?)

I know you probably are getting sick of me writing about Harris Teeter by now, but I do have to say that I had a few tasty things there, and it was just enough to fill me up:

* their store brand of ice cream is surprisingly good.  I also overheard one woman saying "I haven't seen Blue Bell ice cream up here before!" (Harris Teeter, based around Charlotte, sells a lot of Southern-based products that are otherwise difficult to find here)
* I've had a few opportunities to try their hot food bars in Columbia and around DC, but I never bothered to try their pot roast.  Very good pot roast.
* They have a large cake ready to slice tomorrow morning.  I am avoiding that mayhem like the Plague, but if you go tomorrow you can probably snag some opening day cake (they open, I think, around 7 or 8 tomorrow morning)
* There were some different things I've never seen at a Harris Teeter before: a crunchy shrimp sushi roll, a savory sweet potato (or butternut squash - they alternated) patty, and Carolina-style salsa (salsa with slaw in it).
* And to my surprise, they do indeed sell beer and wine!  But not in the store proper - it's in a not so small alcove near the sodas (you may not bring groceries in there).  There is even a set up for wine and beer tastings.  They did, at least, have several wine kiosks set up throughout the store tonight, plus some sparkling cider.


They also had a lot of cheese.

I think I am going to stay away from the new Harris Teeter for the first week or so. Again, I imagine it will be crowded.  But it is an impressive big piece of McHenry Row, and I will be back.


Okay, no more Harris Teeter talk for a while.

2 comments:

theminx said...

I won't succumb to the allure of Harris Teeter until they build one in northern Baltimore County. :)

Anonymous said...

My favorite part is the pharmacy located on the 2nd floor...the pharmacists were SOOO friendly. I'm not used to that!