City Fresh Market – Sensible shopping off the beaten path

When it comes to buying groceries, Chicagoans know the usual suspects:  Jewel, Dominick's, Whole Foods.  In chains like these tomatoes can up to $5 per pound, packaged foods also come with their mark-ups, deli items add up to a pretty penny.

Then there is Trader Joe's and Aldi (Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's), where either selection or quality may suffer.  Places like Costco favor a bulk buyer.  I have not yet been to Urban Fresh, but, from what I hear, it's Jewel items at Fox and Obel prices.

Enter City Fresh Market, on the corner of Devon and Kedzie Avenues, across the street from a kosher fast food joint.  Same tomatoes at $.99 per pound, great selection of deli meats and cheeses that are both delicious and affordable, USDA choice fresh meats priced fairly, and whole fish delivered daily.  The other day I bought two whole white basses for under $4 - no kidding.

The owner is from Serbia, and he maintains his affinity toward the Balkan classics and Eastern European staples, such as ajvar, letcho, pickled tomatoes from Bulgaria, cured meats and sausages, probiotic fermented dairy products.  The deli has a dozen types of feta ranging in origin from France to Armenia.  The selection of booze is intresting:  wines from all over the Balkans, many types of Sliwowitz,even Nemiroff wheat vodka from Ukraine.

The team manages to operate in a fairly small space, runs a bakery on-site, and, despite its ethnic appeal, has created a full-pledged supermarket, where one can buy a lot and spend little.  You can very well see the growing success of this business as longer and longer lines form at the registers.

The fact is that there are plenty of stores like City Fresh in Chicago.  Some may bear "Carniceria" or "Fruteria" in their names, some will be called "Sklep", which is Polish for store or shop, and not all of them are necessarily good or successful.  They also often are not in places like Lincoln Park or Bucktown.  But these joints are fun, and their eclectic choices offer new recipe ideas and force customers to explore, apart from just saving money. 

Quite a few of these markets have the word "Fresh" in the title, so pay attention.  And grab a free newspaper in Romanian or Macedonian on the way out.  You can have some fun deciphering it, or read it front to back, if you know the language.

Comments

[Gretchen]

You might want to try the Fresh Farms International on Touhy...

[L]

City Fresh Market does have beautiful produce at very reasonable prices. Parking lot, as I remember is a bit treacherous though. It's a busy corner and the lot is far to small.

Anyhow, I love the neighborhood and ethnic markets. I'm always shocked at the amount of groceries at low prices I walk out with from places such as:

1. Family Fruit Market at Six Corners -4118 N. Cicero, Chicago, IL 60641

2. Chicago Food Corp/Joong Boo Market -3333 N Kimbal, Chicago, IL 60641

My personal favorite:
3. Super H Mart801 Civic Center Dr, Niles, IL 60714

[L]

I forgot about another favorite:
Tony's Finer Foods -http://tonysfinerfood.com/locations.jsp Not only great produce at reasonable prices but on the weekends, you can buy freshly made/still warm corn tortillas (yum!) and they make some awesome pico de gallo/salsa.

[Monica]

This is the only grocery store I go to now since it's so close to my house. And yeah, never park in the lot adjacent to the store, it gets crazy, but you can park in the lot across the street with no problems!

[Christine]

A&G market on Belmont just west of Central has amazing fresh local bakery and European meats AND reasonably priced produce--lots of local grocery items throughout the store.
#1 for produce--Stanley's on Elston. More organic than local, but hands down the best prices on fruit/veg in the city!

[Godofredus]

I think Stanley's tanked long ago. A&G's is great; it got some kind of prize as best ethnic supermarket a while ago - a Polish (well he was born here in the US) clued me in on that place a long time ago. There are a half dozen places like that on Belmont around Central and along Central...some Hispanic, some Polish/Hispanic, some Polish/Hispanic/Filipino.
Then there is the Greek deli on the Northwest corner of Petersen and Lincoln - mostly fresh produce by great buys on cheese, deli meat, imports, etc.
Then there is Devon market on Devon a block or so east of Clark.
But Dominick's and Jewel do pay their workers decently. Of course Whole Foods doesn't. I am not too sure about these other places.

[Josh]

I have a friend who has worked for Whole Foods for a while and they treat him VERY well...

[Boston Dentist]

People as Hitler and Mussolini are a black spot on history and humanity.
Cheap Airport Parking UK

[chanel bags]

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

[supra shoes]

And do our best to improve this problem

[Juicy Couture Handbags]

i will should be marry , come on baby , wish the best for every one.

[Air Jordan 3]

So around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity.