Everyone know Whole Food’s story and the chain supermarkets popularity. There are some wonderful Whole Foods in New York perhaps the most impressive being on Houston Street and the Bowery. This location, which is far and away my favorite, has it’s own beer market, gelato stand, sushi restaurant with a conveyor belt, grill, pizza department, health food and vitamin center as well as much. much more. I also really like the locations on Union Square and inside the Time Warner Center near Central Park. What I love best about Whole Foods is the beverage section which features a lot of hard to get items, as well as the well priced fresh produce and the prepared food bars which regularly have Indian, Mexican and Middle Eastern dishes. Some of my favorites:

Adirondack Naturals Cola – I will try any cola that uses cane sugar instead of my arch nemesis, high fructose corn syrup. Aside from making very good sparkling water, Adirondack makes good sodas as well.

The Wizards Organic Hot Stuff Biologique - The Whole Foods on 23rd street has a nice hot sauce section where I found this. Very thin and more tangy than actually spicy it goes well with almost any type of rice.

Dry Sodas – If you go to each Whole Foods you can probably find every flavor of these sodas but the Whole Foods in Chelsea only carries the lavender and kumquat bottles but both of them are excellent. Dry sodas contain only a hit of sweetness and are made from sparkling water with and only natural ingredients. The outstanding juniper berry soda is remarkable and literally tastes like carbonated old tom gin.

365 Sodas – 365 of course is Whole Food’s in house brand of food and grocery products. Their soda is amazingly good, once again 365 only uses cane sugar and comes in a wonderful variety of flavors that include key lime, raspberry, cola, vanilla, root beer etc. These are perfect for cocktails.

Pasta From The Hot Prepared Foods Bar – A little overcooked and over sauced? Perhaps, but you pay for it by the pound and it’s better than 90% of the prepared food bars in NYC. Where else can you get ziti with garlic and olive oil, a pakora and a tamale all decently made, at the same time?

Shredded Pecorino Romano Sheep’s Milk – You know what comfort food is to me? How could you know, I’ve never told you, right? Comfort food to me is a big bowl of rigatoni with my homemade bolognese sauce with a bunch of this on top as well as a lot fresh basil with a glass of Barolo. The Whole Foods on the Bowery has a top rate cheese department.

Solixir Sparkling Blackberry Relax Drink – As I said, Whole Foods has a great beverage department filled with cans and bottles that you’ve never seen before. This lightly sweet sparking blackberry drink was great.

Ceres Passion Fruit Juice – There are a ton of both vintage and new cocktails that require passion fruit juice and boy am I happy that the Ceres brand is available at all of the Whole Food. Based out of South Africa, Ceres offers other flavors such as pear, mango, lychee etc. All are excellent.

Abita Purple Haze Raspberry Wheat Brew & Hell Or High Watermelon Wheat Beer – During the Summer I will drink a beer or two a week and I love the huge selection at the Whole Foods on the Bowery. I found both of these there and I loved the watermelon wheat beer which really only had a hint of watermelon in the background.

EO Lavender Hand Sanitizing Spray – Aside from having food and beverages most Whole Food locations carry vitamins and lots of high quality cleaning products. I love lavender and carry this small bottle of hand spray in my work bag for easy convenience.

Virgil’s Bavarian Root Beer – This special edition of Virgil’s root beer with the stopper top is released once a year in very limited numbers. Whole Foods always has them. It is the best root beer in the world and while priced as much as a regular quality beer it is well worth the money. The heavy notes of nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla are awesome

Brown Cow, Liberte and Rachel’s Yogurt – I usually have a yogurt in the morning before I leave for work and love the selection that Whole Foods offers. My favorites are the ever so sweet and creamy Liberte peach and passion fruit as well as Rachel’s wild honey and lavender which are both outstanding and something quite different from most yogurts.

Whole Foods (Bowery Location) -  95 Houston Street (at Bowery) NY, 10002, (212) 420-1320

Filed under: Market Of The Week | Tagged: 365 Sodas, Abita Purple Haze Beer, Adirondacks Soda, Brown Cow Yogurt, Ceres juice, Dry Sodas, EO Lavender Hand Sanatizer, Hell Or High Watermelon Beer, Liberte Yogurt, Market Of The Week, Pecorino Romano, Rachel's Yogurt, Solixir Sparkling, The Bowery, Virgil's Bavarian Root Beer, Whole Foods, Wizard's Organic Hot Sauce