Mariano's South Loop Store is Open—More Pizza and Produce for You!

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Grid View

Expand

• Oh yes, there will be pumpkins. Photos: Courtesy of Mariano's
• Those shelves don't stock themselves. The store opening added some 425 jobs to the local economy.
• Don't mind us, we're just drooling over this brick-oven-pizza situation.
• An in-house sushi counter. That's just how Mariano rolls.

So we've been a little verbose about grocery stores today, but what can we say? Chicago's getting some gorgeous new places to stock up on milk and eggs. Mariano's South Loop location opened its doors—and rolled out its immaculate shopping carts—last week.

Some quick stats on the new store, before we take you on a mini tour: owned by Roundy's Inc., this is Mariano's 12th Chicago location. The shop stocks 200 types of organic produce (including pumpkins and other trick-or-treat fixings), and it has a meat department with a specialty grill station. An in-house dietician offers nutritional consultations, while an international aisle slings goods from 15 countries. There's a spice shop stocked with tons of bulk spices, nuts, and granolas; for something a little less granola, there's an oven churning out brick-oven pizza. The OKI Sushi station has a counter for on-site roll consumption (honestly, why ever wait for sushi?), and the Vero cafe steams up cups of Italian coffee and serves icy, sweet gelato.

Ready to peek inside? Have at it, after the jump.

· Mariano's [Official Site]