What type of couple are you?
If you’re the stay-home-and-watch-a-movie every week, predictable kind of couple, you may not like what we’re doing.
But if you’re an adventurous couple…oh boy, upscale grocery store dates are so your thing.
And guess what we’ve learned?
We are not the only ones.
I regularly see couples strolling around the salad bar buffets and sushi bars, hand in hand, looking very pleased with themselves for finding an affordable and delicious date night option. (Why spend $60 at a fancy restaurant when you can get yummy food for less than half that price?)
In the last two weeks, we tried two more stores for date night.
The first was PCC market in Edmonds, WA. Other locations include: Fremont, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, Seward Park, View Ridge and West Seattle.
(I will be sharing the #2 date night spot tomorrow morning.)
PCC was amazing all around. This has been my favorite so far. Hubby’s too.
Before I tell you how the date went, I confess that we have never shopped at PCC before. As we walked in, Hubby said “I hope we don’t have to be members to go in the store, or buy anything.”
Then, when we saw the swarm of happy, hungry shoppers, spooning steaming helpings of roasted vegetables and black beans and polenta into cardboard takeout containers, I had to fight back the urge to join them.
“Wait. Before we serve ourselves anything. Let’s find out how much it really costs and if there are any extra charges,” Hubby said. ( He hates wasting money. I like that about him.)
“I am going to go find someone and ask,” Hunger motivated me to move quickly as I spotted a PCC employee stocking the cold drinks section.
“No, you don’t have to pay extra,” He assured us.
“Awesome!” I said as we thanked him and hurried back to the deli.
The biggest challenge we had after that? Narrowing down our choices.
Patrick in the deli was a lifesaver. He gave us lots of suggestions, and didn’t seem to mind that the place was crazy busy on a Friday night.
Hubby spotted the quinoa loaves. Patrick said they were a popular choice among herbivores.
“We’ll take one,” Hubby said
“No, let’s do two,” I said.
Hubby looked at me. “We can share,” he said.
“Yeah, but you take big bites,” I teased him. ” And those look amazing.”
“Would you like those heated up?” Patrick offered.
Wow. How nice. And impressive.
And later, when we had just rang up our variety of dinner choices, Patrick came running out with a foil package in his hand.
“Your quinoa loaves!!” He was winded from running to catch up with us.
“Oh yeah! thanks,” we both said, laughing. We had been having so much fun grabbing a little of this and a little of that, that we totally forgot them.
Here’s how Edmond’s PCC won us over:
- Huge variety. Meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans have tons of options from wraps to pizza to kale salad.
- Friendly, helpful service. Every customer dreams of being treated like Patrick treated us. He didn’t know I would be writing about him on this blog, but he was amazing from start to finish.
- Whoever their cooks are-they kick butt. The quinoa loaves were superb and really did have a meatloaf like texture. Ketchup on top was the perfect touch.
- Surprisingly affordable prices. It wasn’t hard to stay close to our budget. And the best part? For under $26 we got all this to share: two quinoa loaves, Mediterranean bean salad, tomato avocado sandwich with spelt bread, marinated beets, black beans and polenta, Emerald City salad, two dark chocolate coconut chews from the bulk section, a vegan blueberry spelt scone, stevia sweetened lemonade spritzer for Hubby, and a sparkling berry seltzer for me. Can you believe it?
- Plenty of private, inside seating space. Though the store was busy, PCC’s dining area (just past the entrance, to the right) was quiet. Most people were grabbing takeout. We sat inside and relaxed while we taste-tested all our goodies.
- After eating, we enjoyed a stroll through the store, browsing the imported dark chocolate, obscure kitchen gadgets and colorful organic produce.
Overall, PCC gets five stars from us.
Stay tuned tomorrow. I will be sharing another local spot we tried out.
Details:
PCC Natural Markets
I’m curious if any of you out there have tried “upscale” grocery store date nights. Maybe there’s a place we need to try, but don’t know about. I’d love to hear your suggestions.
