Supermarkets embrace on-site dining

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 8:56 a.m.

Back in our kinder, gentler America, the only way to eat in a supermarket was to nag Mom so relentlessly that she opened the cookies while they were still in the shopping cart. On-site dining wasn't on anyone's horizon.

Gradually, though, the increase in working mothers and slick advances in packaging and technology changed all that. The last decade saw a huge jump in the number of ready-made meals, and the newest trend takes that one step further. Today an ever-growing number of supermarkets have steam tables, woks and fancy delicatessens to prepare restaurant quality food items for hungry shoppers. Here are four local places doing just that.

Wild Oats Market 517 N.Stephanie St.

The newest Wild Oats might just be the best market in the city for dining on premises. The options, certainly, are the most diverse.

It's comfy, too. The front of the market has a community area furnished with sofas and chairs, surrounded by wooden tables for dining. There is a filtered water cooler and a bulletin board for local notices. It's a congenial, relaxing place to break up a harried day's shopping.

You'll load up in the market, then bring your food through the check out to eat. One stop might be this giant salad bar, where you fill up a bubble-top plastic dish and pay by weight, $4.59 a pound. The choices are legion; tuna salad, tofu salad, myriad greens and raw vegetables, several dressings, couscous salad and curried turkey, all in all, more than 50 items.

Next to that there is a soup bar, where you might find a tomato-rich salmon bisque, a creamy corn chowder and at least three other choices. Eight ounces of soup is $1.99; sixteen ounces, $3.49.

If salad's not what you are craving, don't despair. At the fresh Mexican food station you'll find tamales, taco salads, burritos and similar snacks. At the pizza station, choose one of the huge, bready slices of fresh, hot pizza, $2.49 a slice. The pizzas have toppings such as four cheese, pepperoni and Greek olives.

But the crowning touch is the Asian Noodle Bar, where a proper Japanese lunch sells for $5 or less. You'll get a choice of noodles, either soba, ramen or udon, plus a variety of tasty toppings. You may have the noodles fried or in a house made broth. Choose the latter and the choices are bonito, a tuna relative, miso or tonkatsu, a pork flavored broth.

Costco 1080 W. Sunset Road, Henderson

Costco, a membership department store, does an enormous grocery business. It is known for large quantity items at bargain basement prices, and that also goes for what is served in the store's cafeteria. You dine on white picnic tables equipped with red benches, situated directly behind the check-out area. At calories per dollar, this must be the least-expensive food in town.

Half-pound Hebrew National hot dogs or Polish sausages are $1.50 with a whopping 20 ounce soda included. A price of $9.95 gets you a trencherman-sized 18-inch pizza, and $1.90 gets you a slice, which is one-sixth of that pie. If you want to carbo load, how about one of these giant hot pretzels rolled in either cinnamon and sugar or Parmesan cheese, 95 cents.

If you are really hungry, try a chicken bake, at $2.69 a luxury item here. It's a foot long-plus cylinder of baked dough stuffed with white meat chicken, cheese, bacon, green onion and Caesar dressing. One of these monsters will feed two hungry kids, a price, like many in here, that is amazingly light on the pocketbook.

Raley's 4015 S. Buffalo Dr.

Meanwhile, in any of our larger chains, there are a predictable number of goodies that can be consumed on the premises; fried chicken, sandwiches and composed salads, for instance. Whether or not there are tables has to be determined on a case by case basis.

This particular Raley's, however, has tables, and has added a new wrinkle to boot. Squeezed in between the deli and produce sections is Java City, an espresso bar that will remind many people, at least in terms of the coffee menu, of a Starbucks.

This large area is surrounded by a few tables, and so one can sit and have an unhurried cappuccino accompanied by a pastry or sandwich, smack in the middle of the supermarket. Java City offers the full line of coffee drinks, from espressos to mochas to iced specialty drinks, at prices slightly lower than Starbucks. All coffee served here is hand roasted on the premises, and the pastries, especially scones and biscotti, are delicious.

While sipping that coffee, you might want a sandwich from the deli. The choices are ham, pastrami, turkey and roast beef, on a choice of breads with all the trimmings. The price is $3.59.

Raley's also has a good deal on fried chicken. $6.59 gets you eight pieces, one pound of a composed salad, four 24 ounce sodas and as many dinner rolls. Why not bring the kids and eat this meal at one of these tables. Think of the mess you won't make by not bringing this fried chicken dinner home.

Von's 3325 Russell Road

Von's has extended an in-house eating syllogism to its logical conclusion by simply putting a Panda Express inside its Russell Road store. Call this a work in progress. If it succeeds wildly, perhaps we'll see many more food stands like it in local supermarkets.

Panda Express is a chain of fast food outlets, which started in California and are now situated in shopping malls and food courts in several states. It owes a lot of its success to a wide variety of fresh, authentic dishes that appeal to both Asian and Western palates alike.

The setup is clever, a series of woks that are continually replenishing dishes in the steam table, some of which are really delicious. Once again, this is an eat-in or takeout operation. Most entrees, such as barbecued pork, stir-fried spicy chicken with peanuts and around a dozen others,are $5.99 a pound.

It is also easy to grab a tray and eat at a nearby table. A two item combo, two entrees served with a choice of steamed rice, fried rice or chow mein, is $4.59. A third entree can be added for one dollar extra.

TV dinners might never taste the same again.