Morning, Noon, and Night at the Corvallis Market of Choice

The grocery store, Market of Choice, opened yesterday in Corvallis!!! Z and I have been waiting for this day for a long time. We would always say to each other, we love living in Corvallis but it is missing a Market of Choice. When I moved to Corvallis away from Eugene to start graduate school (and shack up with Z), we would make occasional trips to Eugene to visit some friends but mostly to pick up some groceries from the Market of Choice.

Z was the very first customer into the Market of Choice and I was the second! But I was the first customer to visit the beer section. We wanted to be the first customers into the store on opening day so we got to the store at about 6:45 in the morning and waited outside the doors. We thought we would be the only people waiting for the store to open. We weren't! By the time the doors opened at 7, I think I saw around ten to fifteen people waiting around our entrance. No matter what, Z was going to be the first customer in that store. I loved seeing him so happy yesterday!

The store is everything I hoped for and more. I wanted to take some pictures of our experience but I didn't bring my camera. When we left, it was still dark outside and really foggy so I thought the pictures of the outside wouldn't turn out. I thought I would look too silly taking pictures inside. I saw plenty of people throughout the day with huge grins on their faces while they were taking pictures inside. I wouldn't have been alone! That's why I only have a picture my naughty challah rolls. I wasn't going to share a picture of them because no matter how I arranged the challah, they still looked like body parts. Every time I go to a Market of Choice, I always either get a loaf or a few rolls of challah if there is any left. It is absolutely delicious and always fresh. The rolls have never looked like this; they are normally little knots. Whatever, they taste amazing.

Let me start with the building itself. The building is beautiful. If you are familiar with Markets of Choice, it looks similar to the store on Willamette in Eugene. There is a nice seating area next to one of the entrances, with some more tables above. You can look out over the entire store from up there. Then, there are the groceries. Oh my goodness! There were a few specific things we wanted to make sure the store carried. We perused the beer selection. Excellent! I made sure there were peppadews in the olive bar. Of course there were beautiful peppadews! We found our coffee filters at the same price as at the Eugene stores. Awesome! By the way, if you use the cone-shaped filters, the Market of Choice has the best price for I think high-quality filters. These things matter. When you love coffee and want to make the best possible cup of coffee you can at home, things like filters matter. This store doesn't carry our curry powder but after talking to the grocery manager, they will. They have Melindas Hot Sauce! For the longest time, Markets of Choice were the only places I could find this sauce. We have both been looking forward to living in a town where we could buy a variety of Umpqua dairy products. This sounds crazy but keep in mind we are obsessed with having yummy food, we were excited to be able to get Market of Choice brand milk whenever we want to. When it's on sale, it tends to be a really great deal. And once again, it tastes great.

Every time I mention the Market of Choice and the amazingness of its selections, I always talk about what an amazing bulk section it has. The Corvallis store has a great selection and awesome prices on the things we regularly buy. Cheapest baby chana dal (little chick peas) I have seen!!!

The produce looked great, too. One of the things I love about Market of Choice is the care they take with their products. The chile peppers were so carefully arranged and were so inviting! If we didn't already have a few jalapenos in the fridge, we would have gotten some of their beautiful red chile peppers. I think we counted 17 different KINDS of fresh mushrooms, not to mention all the dried options. I had never heard of about six of them. That made me happy. We tend to judge our grocery store experience on the quality of the shallots. If you haven't noticed, we have some weird quirks. They looked great by the way.

Let's see, I think I covered everything. We did go to the store three times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the morning, I bought challah. For lunch, we got Umpqua half-and-half and heavy cream (for another try at caramel sauce). I also bought some hard cider and olives and figs in a balsamic syrup from the olive bar. For dinner, Z bought some beer. In the next couple of days we will be going back for some gelato.

As we were leaving the third time, one of the managers, started talking to us, he said something like, "Three times? Is that right? I think I have seen you guys three times today." And then we had an awesome conversation with him. So, if you are shopping at the Corvallis Market of Choice and see duck fat available for sale in the cheese section in the future, you can thank Z since he was the once to suggest they stock duck fat. I can only imagine what potatoes fried in duck fat tastes like. I'm drooling at the thought.

-Ace