We live in Boston and rarely do our food shopping outside the city.  We’re big fans of never getting in the car and supporting our local neighborhoods (South End and North End).  In the South End, we do most of our shopping at Foodie’s Urban Market, Don Otto’s Market (formerly Lionette’s), and the South End Formaggio.  In the North End, we’re not even sure the places we shop have names, but they’re great nonetheless.  These places serve us well, but sometimes we just want to check out what’s happening at the big box markets, particularly Whole Foods.

Recently we had to head out of the city (cringe) and check out the new Legacy Place in Dedham, MA.  Legacy Place also happens to be the home of the largest Whole Foods Market in the country (so we’re told).  Well, we’ve got major hots for the Bowery Whole Foods in New York City, which is so awesome it’ll make your head spin, so we were most excited to see what Dedham, MA had to offer.

Surprisingly, the Dedham market doesn’t feel that huge.  Maybe it’s the layout, or that it’s all on one floor, but it just doesn’t feel that overwhelming.  The prepared foods section is awesome, and puts others we’ve seen to shame.  There’s food ranging from Mediterranean to Mexican to Gelato to fresh baked bread.  Really awesome, and if we lived in the area, it would be possible to never cook again.  The rest of the store is equally impressive, with an amazing variety to choose from.  The fresh fish selection looked good, but nothing compared to the Bowery market.  The fish market had maybe ten types of fish, while the Bowery market always seems like it has 25.  This was surprising considering how important seafood is in the Boston area.  The cheese and meats section looked fantastic, and there was a good bit of samples out to try…a major plus to any market. This Whole Foods also has a very nice wine selection, and although the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, they just weren’t that knowledgeable about the wines.  No biggie, though.  The good prices more than made up for it.

All in all, a great market that we’re incredibly envious of.  There’s been talk of bringing a Whole Foods to Boston’s South End, but I’m not sure I see this happening.  Anyway, this post was going to be about how green the Legacy Place Whole Foods is, but I think we’ll save that for tomorrow.  Stay tuned.