Great Taste

Rochester, when it comes to good food you're no longer in the rookie league.  The October 23rd reopening of Zzest Culinary Market & Wine Cafe hit one out of the ballpark. It's a whole new culinary scene.

Great Taste has just one little concern.  Is this a dream?

Salts, peppercorns and spices; honey varieties; chutneys and preserves; mostardas; sauces (including mole); chocolates; ice creams; olives; many types of oils; vinegars; truffles; pastas; risotto rices; specialty crackers; and quality soup mixes are among the foodstuffs to be discovered in LeeAnn Zubay's Manhattan-esque food emporium. The store's new and much larger location, across the road from Apache Mall, also houses a cafe due to open later this month.

At the center of it all--literally and figuratively--are the cheese cases. Shoppers will find a large assortment that is not comprehensive (there are few, if any, cheeses found at the supermarket) but includes artisan domestic cheeses such as Prairie Fruits Farm's liquid center Ewe Bloom, made in Champaign, Illinois, and Coupole ash-ripened goat cheese in a miniature wood crate from Vermont Butter & Cheese Company. Humboldt Fog of California is featured, natch, as well as major 2009 award winners SarVecchio Parmesan and Crave Brothers Mascarpone, both from Wisconsin.

We haven't even started mentioning the imports.       

If you aren't already en route to this little piece of foodie paradise, consider multi-grain and olive loaves and French baguettes shipped in from Tribeca Oven bakery on the East Coast. Or specialty supplies like cutting boards or copies of Culture, the cheese aficionado's glossy magazine. 

Culinary Market, previously located in the heart of Rochester at First Avenue and Civic Center Drive, is now, at 1190 16th Street, a longer trip for some, but it has easier parking.

Info: (507) 424-0080; open Tuesday-Saturday 10 am to 8 pm.

LeeAnn Zubay, how can we thank you enough?   

Does GT have to wake up now? Is this some kind of belated Halloween prank?

But it's true....In rah-rah Rochester, Minnesota.

In the land of Jesse Ventura and Al Franken, in the land of the SuperTarget and Sontes, anything can happen....And it has!