A Love Letter to Stew Leonard's
A love letter to a grocery store? Seriously?
Yes, seriously. They say you don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone, and that’s exactly how I feel about moving away from my hometown that had a Stew Leonard’s 4 minutes from my mom’s house. I also took for granted having a suburban Target about 2 minutes away, but I digress… For those of you who may be uncultured, Stew Leonard’s is the epitome of grocery stores. It is a fever dream. Where else on earth can you navigate a maze to try to get your food for the week while being serenaded by animatronics? Free ice cream cones for every $100 spent? Fresh apple cider donut samples? Maybe Disney World? NO. Only Stew Leonard’s!!!!!
I will start this love letter by shouting out the realest divas in the game: Chiquita Banana Lady and Miss Diva Cheese (pictured below).
When I was in college, I brought a few friends home with me over break and brought them to Stew Leonard’s to experience it. The utter shock in their face when they hit the play button on these queens was priceless. I mean, who doesn’t love “A Chiquita banana makes a great meal, so many good things under the peel, they have vitamins and minerals in every bite, and best of all they have a tasty (tbh I don’t know what this word is)…. CHIQUITAS ARE DELICIOUS AND THEY ARE VERY NUTRITIOUS!” Spoiler alert: I actually don’t love a Chiquita banana because if there is one food on this earth I absolutely despise, it’s bananas. More on that later. And Miss Diva Cheese??? She reminds us all that “you gotta have cheese, babe!” and that cements her into icon status. She also stands guard over the olive bar, so you know the exact type of woman she is. I’d want to have a dirty martini with bleu cheese stuffed olives and a side of fries with her. I love them both so much. Even if Chiquita Banana lady is lobbying on behalf of Big Banana…
My favorite thing about Stew’s is that it has an actual really solid selection of groceries paired with an incredible hot bar/to go food section. Here are my favorite items that Stew’s offer:
BLT Pasta Salad
Mini Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches
Apple Cider Donut Holes
Chicken Salad
Kettle Chips
Chocolate Drizzled Rice Cakes
There are definitely other things that I like from there but for some reason I cannot think of more than that… looks like I’m overdue for a trip to the motherland.
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