Overview: The New Settler’s Ridge Market District
Posted by mike | Filed under Community
This is a tough one for me to write up. Mostly, that’s because your sense of my credibility is impaired by the fact that Giant Eagle is very clearly working to court some blogger buzz. They’re sponsoring a contest here, hosted a VIP blogger reception/tour, and sent us all home with enormous gift baskets filled with goodies. I think I’m still able to push out a useful commentary, but…take it with a grain of salt.
Disclosure: This post is based largely on my opinion after coming out of a new tour/reception for new media types at the new Giant Eagle Store. I came out of the event having received a free dinner and an enormous gift basket from Giant Eagle. Keep that in mind while you’re reading the rest of this.
With that out of the way, here we go…
Giant Eagle Market District
100 Settlers Ridge Center Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15205
marketdistrict.com/robinson
(412) 788-5392
I didn’t actually receive an invite to the blogger reception, so I owe big thanks to Lauren over at Burghilicious for letting me tag along as her guest. Thanks! I was in contact with a marketing consultant that Giant Eagle had brought in to cover the “new media” marketing angle. That’s the contact that brought you the first ever FoodBurgh collaborative post and contest. I’m not sure why I never received an invite, but I’m glad it all worked out. If you haven’t checked out Lauren’s site, you should definitely check it out.
While you’re at it, there’s still time to submit your favorite Pittsburgh restaurant and win $25 to spend at the new store.
The three-phase reception. The reception was broken down into three parts: first, they set us free in the prepared foods area to gather up a dinner of our choosing. After an extensive period of wandering through the myriad prepared options, we joined up for dinner in the cafe. Finally, after dinner, we followed along with a Giant Eagle rep who gave us the grand tour. My camera batteries actually died while touring the prepared section, so the photos lean more on that side. The good news is, that was probably the best part of the event to capture. You can also head over to eatPGH and Burghilicious for their photo work.
Prepared foods to suit every taste. As a general rule, I’m a big fan of Giant Eagle as a fall-back salad bar when I don’t get a chance to pack a lunch for work. You can’t beat it for consistency in availability of fresh and healthful salad components (when they have a salad bar, that is). Every once in a while, I even grab a sandwich at some of the other Market District locations (typically Shadyside). The Robinson Market District is really just the explosion of that concept to the extreme. Every time I thought I found the end, I ran into yet another dining possibility.
Here’s my list of all the options…
- coffee (and other hot beverages)
- fruit juice (fresh squeezed)
- cold bar (salsa / middle eastern salads)
- hot bar (casserole / roasted chicken / veggie stir fry)
- salad bar (fresh raw veggies in salad portions)
- stir fry (made to order)
- salad (made to order)
- soup (4 varieties + 3 seafood options elsehwere)
- crepes (both savory and sweet)
- pizza (complete with pizza oven)
- Italian (with an abnormal number of vegetarian options)
- sandwiches (lots of pre-pared—more meat than veggie)
- gelato (interesting flavors / made in house)
Some prepared food hits and misses. Keep in mind, each bullet in that list was a completely different station. Not all of it was excellent, but you have to keep in mind that it was a cafeteria. I tried the prepared veggie stir fry from the hot bar and really liked it, but the two middle eastern salads I picked up were a little bland and lifeless. The crepes looked pretty good, but I didn’t go there. The salad bar had lots of fresh and crisp options, but most everything was cut into large enough pieces that it was difficult to eat as a salad.
Overall, I would say the prepared food section had a lot of good options—both healthy and unhealthy. There’s a pretty good chance that at least one of the stations will be at least somewhat exciting to any given person. Even so, it was still just a high-end cafeteria. It’s worth checking out and vastly better than any fast food option, but still not a place to meet people for dinner.
Heading upstairs to the mezzanine. Yes, this Giant Eagle actually has a second floor—or at least a mezzanine level over part of the store. That level had everything from cafeteria-style tables to a small number of coffee-shop style seats where you could enjoy your coffee. Speaking off coffee shop, can you say free WiFi? Because they definitely have it setup and wide open for use without any type of login or annoying terms of service page.
Central produce space with some notables. Because prepared foods take up so much space, the produce section falls near the center of the store. Surrounded by the mezzanine, it was well lit with a two-story ceiling. All that space offered up some veggies I hadn’t seen in a Giant Eagle before (fava beans, striped eggplant). Interestingly, they didn’t seem to have any more apples than any other Giant Eagle. I’m sure local Apples are hard to scale up to that extent, but at least a few different options would have been a nice touch.
The hydroponics area. Yep, you read that correctly. There’s a hydroponics area that is currently used exclusively for growing bibb lettuce. The produce guys were quick to point out that doing this in-house is fairly experimental: they have no idea how it will turn out. They don’t have any lettuce ready yet, but they’re hoping to get into a 4 week rotation to get a fresh crop each week. I’m not sure where I stand on whether this is a good idea or not, but I’ll probably be sticking to the green leaf along the sides. It’s not clear to me what advantages one finds in growing in this environment, but I’m sure it makes for good marketing.
Everything else: a store inside a store. The prepared foods and produce sections combine to take up about half the store. The other half of the store is roughly what you might expect from another Market District location with a few notable options—including an olive oil bar where you can pick from among about 8 different olive oils and fill up a container to take home. There were a few other notable product stations, but many others didn’t quite receive the attention I would have liked. Most notably, I didn’t find any non-standard brands of yogurt or anything beyond a single brand of molasses. Even the somewhat large scale Brown Cow yogurt was completely missing (as it is in most Giant Eagle locations). That’s a shame, because it’s my personal favorite and was at one point far more readily available.
High end kitchenware. For a kitchen geek like me, one of the more notable sections of the store for me was kitchenware. Giant Eagle always has a few utensils and pans to help fill a gap in a pinch, but in most other stores, none of those items is at all “high end.” The new Market District actually offers up a completely different spread: I noticed high some beautiful slate coaster sets, stainless steel brand name utensils (think Cuisinart and Mario Batali). They even had a whole book shelf of some fairly well-known cookbooks. Of course, Rachel Ray was front and center, but there were other options as well.
Real cooking classes. The other Market District locations have demo stations, where guest chefs can show up and walk through the process of using a particular ingredient while customers stand and watch. That’s all well and good, but it’s a far cry from a cooking class. Well, the new market district has a separate cooking classroom set aside upstairs. I’m actually somewhat interested in how they’ll use that space and what type of courses will be offered. If you happen to give one of their courses a try, let me know what you thought.
Price and label your own bulk goods. You know that drill when you go to Whole Foods or the Food Co-Op for bulk goods, right? You find a product number, then awkwardly find a place where you can write out the number and use it to close off your bag. For exactly that reason, I absolutely loved the streamlined process at Giant Eagle. There’s a scale with built-in label printer right beside the bulk goods. Just fill up a bag, type in a product code, and you can print out a price sticker right there. That means you can pick up bulk goods and make use of the self checkout without too much trouble. This was easily one of my favorite parts of the store.
Overall. If you live in the area, you owe it to yourself to make a trip out to the new Market District to check it out for yourself—if for no other reason than a conversation piece around the office. I imagine that the new store will fit some consumers better than others; it really all depends on what you’re aiming for. Those who have been opting for the CSA approach, are likely to stick with that, but there’s a big part of the foodie world for whom the new store will be a big hit. Grocery shopping tendencies are extremely personal, so the only way you’ll really know is to check it out for yourself.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
You are more than welcome! It was great to meet you in person.
May 4th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
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