TOD
I've known and loved many kinds of supermarket or grocery store, a few of which I look back on with true fondness. Let's see what I can recall from the main areas I've lived in...
The last place I lived in Cleveland, actually Cleveland Heights which I loved (and probably still would), had a family run grocery store called Russo's that was walking distance from us, had a cozy vibe, and it had a wonderful floor-to-ceiling selection in every department. I have missed that store since 1972. It was there for years, but is now no more. Whenever I see it mentioned in one of the Cleveland Facebook groups, the same sentiment is expressed by everyone who knew it.
In L.A. I twice lived close enough to a Hughes Market for that to be my regular store. I was a 3- or 4-block walk from the one at Highland Ave. and Franklin, and I find lots of people loved that one, too. The other one for me was in Beverly Hills across the street from Chasen's, a five-minute bicycle ride from my apartment.
When I lived in Redondo Beach I went bigger, enjoying the larger and more modern Ralph's on PCH in Torrance. That's a major chain and is still there. Following that, during the year I lived in Chicagoland, I first shopped at a Dominicks which is no more, then the larger and more modern Jewel. (Are they still around? It was always "Jewel/Osco" because they usually had an Osco Drugs right there.) BUT...the wonderful apartment complex I lived in had its own White Hen Pantry. Those were all over town then, but having one on your own "property" was like having the most wonderful bodega there, day and night. I miss that whole place.
Finally, back in L.A., I lived in West Hollywood where my store was a 2-block walk, the Mayfair on Santa Monica at N. Kings Road. That was a lovely store, and I see it's now a Gelson's. It was that nice mid-size jernt similar to that first Hughes Market in Hollywood. By now, though, I was also stopping in regularly at the nearest Trader Joe's for whatever they had that was unique to them, and that continues to this day.
So do I have that kind of favorite store now, in Connecticut? I find now that it's more a case of whatever you've gotten comfortable with, and the the current one is a ShopRite. Does it take the place of the stores described above? No. It's a good store. But I don't find that "magic" at any of them around here. I love the "IGA" chain of very small, very packed, markets. They are few and far between around here, but they come close to having the feel of a really nice NYC bodega or other small market. And yes, they do have the "magic".
