Epicurean Express, that long-awaited little bodega-style grocery store in East Downtown, opened quietly early this week in this strip shopping center at 2018 Rusk St., at the corner of St. Emanuel — about 10 months after its originally scheduled opening date. Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia reports a bit more work will be needed inside before the 3,500-sq.-ft. store just down the street from Warehouse Live — which includes a small area for cafe seating inside — is fully stocked. You’ll want to wait a few more weeks before sandwiches are ready at the deli, too.
- Previously on Swamplot: Coming to the Street That Warehouse Live Built: An EaDo Corner Grocery
Photos: Candace Garcia
Great Addition to the Hood but I wish it had more Urban Architecture i.e closer to the street with parking in the back…still…great to have
The place is bare-bones right now. I bought a half-loaf of same-day baked “artisan” sourdough bread and a bottle of Spanish wine last night. The bread was decent (not organic, though) for $2 and the wine was excellent ($15). The owner (who also owns the wine bar next door and Lucky’s Pub across the street) tastes each wine before stocking it and recommended the one I bought.
Perhaps this entrepreneurial adventurer will also bring back the Asian massage parlor.
Glad to hear that the owner of this place isn’t buying into the unsustainable organic fad.
Seriously?!?! Complaining about a grocery (where your selection was oh – nothing) store’s non-organic bread selection is quite possibly the most pretentious thing I have read this morning. Spoonman, I like you.
“Stating the Obvious” is my new hero. I mean, seriously, I usually love the snarky comments on this site but how precious can we get? There’s now a grocery where there once was no grocery. This is a good thing. It means progress and improvement. Be happy about it and get over yourself.
Suwoopgang – reduce, resuse, recycle.
You guys seem to be piling on Dana-X a bit hastefully.
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His view of the place seemed to be pretty positive. And, unlike the people ripping on him, he’s actually BEEN THERE and SUPPORTED the guy with a real purchase. Can the same be said for the people complaining about his (innocuous, IMO) comment about the non-organic bread?
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You do see the irony here, right?
Sure, Cody, the business should sell whatever its customers (ie, Dana-X) will buy. That said, organic food is a terrible idea, and I will make fun of people who think it’s good for the world.
If we converted our entire food supply to Organic farming, 1/5th to 1/4th of Earth’s population would starve to death. Look it up, there are Doctorates and Nobel Prize papers written on that.
Organic bread or not, I just want to add that my wife and I went there this weekend, and though it hasn’t had it’s official grand opening (she said it would likely be this coming weekend) and isn’t fully stocked, it’s a great little corner store. They sold a lot of items that I didn’t think they would have. The owner was very friendly and welcoming, and the prices were lower than I’d suspected they would be.
All in all, I can’t wait to see what the finished product will be like! Please quit worrying about whether it’s organic or not and go support it if you want it to stick around…
Cody-
How do you know Dana-X is a Man???
Suwoopgang: I dont. It was half assumption and half generic use of the masculine tense rather than “he/she” or “(s)he” — both of which I find cheesy.
I see I missed out on all the fun…the idea that someone buying organic food is pretentious is just….pretentious. It’s just food like Grandpappy ate. He would think GMO corn was pretenious. And good for the world? The world is full of fools! Real women eat real food.
@Cody: There is no “generic” use of the masculine form–only sexist or preferential use. I’m not gonna lambast you over it. I will say that statistically speaking, you’d be safer guessing a person’s gender as female (if unable to determine by username or other means), since women comprise more than half of the world’s population.
I know, I seem like an interloping feminist nazi by posting this. I don’t mean to at all, and y’all seem very nice. I just am trying to affect a modicum of change in my tiny little corner of the world. As soon as women are truly equal (front line combat/special ops, president of the U.S., equal pay for equal work, and not asked questions that are never posed to men when running for office or applying for jobs), I promise to “chillax.” :-)
YAY!! I finally have a grocery store that doesn’t involve dodging bullets in the Kombat Kroger parking lot while waiting for helicopters to drop bags of rice…