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| - I never thought I would be writing a review for a grocery store, but I also never left one asking my wife if I could come back with her next week when she does the weekly shopping. I also never went to work the next day and pondered if I should drop by a "grocery store" on the way home for a beer. This is the effect 201 Central has on you.
They are promoting themselves as a "specialty store", but I would describe them as a super market nesting doll made up of a sandwich shop, shoved into a coffee bistro, shoved into a local bar, shoved into a wine room, shoved into a grocery store, shoved into a Total Wine, with a JR's Cigar humidor room off to the side. This place is the unofficial house party headquarters, which happens to live in the same shopping plaza as the ABC store. They might as well change the name to Fridays, because this is the first place you will stop after punching your last weekly time card.
When you walk in the first thing you see is a small bar off to the right. There are stools lined up all around it, and a WiFi seating area with tables as well. This is where you can pick up sandwiches, snacks, coffee, tea, soft drinks, or what drew me over, their beer and wine selections. I was looking over the craft beer menu, when the guy behind the bar asked me what I was interested in. I said I was just browsing the menu and planned on walking around, that maybe we would stop in on the way out. To which he replied, you know I can pour you a pint of beer and you can walk around the store drinking it while you shop, to which I replied, Uhhhhhh then by all means I'll take a Left Hand Milk Stout and my wife will have a Blue Moon. And there we went, pushing our metal shopping cart, drinking two pints of beer, they had my return service right there. Awesome concept Harris Teeter!
As we pushed through the store drinking, commenting, and gasping at the amount of local craft beer and wine selections they had, we came across a total of 4 craft beer sample stations. I had offerings from Great Lakes Brewing, the best being their Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, fell in love at the Sweet Water brewing station when the rep realized I had tried all their Sweet Water offerings before, she opened the beer freezer and pulled out Danktoberfest and let me sample it right there in the store. Needless to say that tactic worked I left with two bombers. The Saranac vendor was also there giving out tastings of their entire winter sampler pack. Absolutely loved the Chocolate Lager and they were also selling this limited 32oz growler of their delicious Pumpkin Ale for get this, $3.49, but wait I forgot 201central this week has 20% off ALL craft beer in the store so that was really $2.79! I filled my cart like I was at Sam's Club buying toilet paper, and we took our slight buzz to the next tasting station which was none other than Bell's Brewery. I love all of their beers, so we sampled their entire catalog, and even though their beers are more expensive, you get what you pay for, and luckily the 20% deal came through again! What a great start to this franchise!
I will wrap this up, but just know we also stopped by a wine tasting station, walked into a giant humidor room with the sweet aroma of cigars, and noticed they sell every chip, dip, dessert, and microwavable snack item you would ever want to stock your house with to entertain family or friends. The Grand Opening is this week at both their locations so walk in, grab a drink, and evaluate it yourself. I think they have struck gold with this idea, and I hope it catches fire and spreads to every upscale super market in the area. I'm a huge fan of where Harris Teeter has went with this concept, and I'll probably start stealing the grocery list off the refrigerator just to have a reason to shop here again.
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