Sunday mid-day went undercover as customer to three gourmet grocery stores across Mumbai to pit them against each other in range, service and price point
Representation Pic
Even with omnichannel and e-commerce, the new gourmet store formats are highly innovative with their gastronomic offerings for the customer looking for an experience beyond low prices and good products. Being on top of changing consumer habits, these stores often double up as workshop spaces, cafés, and connoisseurs’ corners for the growing number of gourmands in the city.
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Staples for SoBo’s luxe
Nuts and Seeds
A pioneer (of sorts) in the fresh produce and global food market, Nature’s Basket’s cult following was enhanced with their first concept store—Nature’s Basket Artisan Pantry, at Palladium. This European market-like arrangement filled with international products jostling for space with Indian brands and some innovative counters, it’s a food-to-go mecca that features a cafe where you can savour freshly made sushi, hot peppermint mocha or nasegoreng as you explore, taste, and learn about the finest ingredients from around the globe.
Honey bar
Targeting SoBo customers who are known to value quality over price, fresh produce takes centerstage, around segments like boulangerie, cheese room, charcuterie, wine cellar, and chocolate studio. The decor is minimal and the staff is quick to respond to queries without being intimidating.
We loved the jars of lemon and mint-infused water kept on the tables at the Good Food Cafe. The manuka honey bar was our favourite, too. One could sample from a wide range of honey to choose from. We liked the improbably generous antipasto and olive bar alongside the truffle bar, a carefully curated selection of speciality items, artisanal drinks, and local flavours.
Cheese room
The farmer’s markets and live cooking gourmet studios exemplify how a supermarket can respond to consumer demands for sustainable options, tasty food and a pretty-looking shopping environment. It makes it a celebration of food culture, where people can attempt to come closer to the farming community and enhance their culinary skills as well. The idea is to become a community hub for food enthusiasts, sharing love for exceptional food experiences.
What: Nature’s Basket Artisan Pantry
Size: 11,800 sq ft
At: Palladium, 3rd floor, Lower Parel
Ambience: Modern-European
Service: Friendly, non-intimidating
COST: Mid to ultra-premium
CALL: 8527678841
Verdict: Good
Chota packet, bada dhamaka
Pics/Sameer Markande
Modest in size but not selection, Fresh Signature has 17 live food stations carefully curated to offer a range of products and dishes. These include Le15 patisserie desserts, live khakra and chikki stations an ice-cream sundae parlour, a noodle bar, and a health café. On a Sunday evening, it was packed to the gills (perks of being inside a mall) and it takes a few seconds for your senses to adjust.
Live Chikki station
Also, because this store follows a similar blueprint to Freshpik stores, where deep containers of desi dals and grains retail alongside imported soba noodles and tagliatelle—the options are plenty. Cultural significance extends beyond the spice jars, tea blends, and crusty baked bread, spilling into an artisanal honey bar, nut butter grinding station, and more.
LIVE KHAKRA STATION
Breaking away from the monotony of traditional grocery retail, we liked the live hair oil and ubtan counter, where you can customise the product according to your hair and skin type and problems that need to be addressed. Their fresh produce section had produce sourced from farms, locally and globally.
Customised oil and ubtan counter
Breaking away from the monotony of traditional grocery retail, you realise that the whole thing has been built to resemble a sort of farmers’ market with all the different stalls brought together under one roof. Buy some popcorn, sip on bubble tea and shop for your groceries.
What: Fresh Signature, Infiniti Mall, Andheri
Size: 9,000 sq ft (approx)
At: Fresh Signature, Infiniti Mall, Andheri West
Ambience: Luxury bazar
Service: Prompt and friendly
Cost: Mid to premium
Call: 67082941
Verdict: Good
Putting the ‘baniya buddhi’ to work
Caviar section
Fresh spices are being roasted at a counter on low flame before grinding it for a customer’s order. This is what modern farmerpreneurship looks like when two visionaries who went on to start large-scale aquaponics and sustainable soil-based farms across Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, and Belgaum for over five years ventured into a business which they believe is an extended version of their vision of a social movement, with commitments around local sourcing and sustainability.
Spice mill
Killing two birds with one stone—it was as though the founders of Food Square, Mayank Gupta and Lalit Jhawar found a permanent indoor market for their produce to be sold at fair prices alongside culinary produce and products from all over the world.
Fresh Catch
Spread across four floors, each nook offers a different gastronomic concept—from fresh guacamole to fresh sugarcane juice to make your own pickle, to having fresh pasta made right in front of your eyes—the luxury of fresh, for a city that’s always on the go, makes it an interesting experience.
Cheese platter
There’s a chef-led, ingredient-focused cafe, The Barn, in the basement and the madira section has wine selection curated by sommeliers.
The sublime interiors and warm lights offer the perfect backdrop for artisanal brands and startups to showcase their innovative and millennial products. There’s a one-of-a-kind cheese selection that boasts over 350 varieties from around the world.
There’s caviar too and fresh catch and clams from local waters and foreign waters. From Indian sweet shop to pet store, to a coffee lab, truffle bar and the widest range of Japanese chocolates, this flagship store offers something for everyone. We liked how the staff is kind and in the pretext of being helpful, doesn’t intimidate customers.
Pet care
What: Food square
Size: 29,000 sq ft
AT: Food Square, Plot No, 106 Linking Road Santacruz West
Ambience: Modern, opulent
Service: Proactive, non-intimidating
Cost: Mid to ultra-premium
Call: 9833355199
Verdict: Excellent
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