Wow! Clermont has a new grocery that has landed and is taking the town by storm.
I don’t remember hearing much about it beforehand, only that another grocery store was going into an area formerly held by Sweet Bay markets.
Eric heard about the “Store that sold beer while you’re shopping”. Man! What a concept. There may be other stores that have that option, but none close to here – just saying.
He stopped by the first week they were open and gave up because the lack of nearby parking. We eventually was able to stop by within the first 2 weeks, and I still wasn’t won over because of the crowded aisles and what I thought was too much hype. Since that time, I’ve changed my mind, found several very interesting things and yes, I’ve enjoyed the beer while shopping. 🙂
As mentioned above, the beer for some are a major attraction. On one of our weekend visits here, the line waiting for their drink of choice kept growing and growing and growing. Count them – 7 men in line (and a few women). Four more gentleman got in the line before any left.
Their shopping carts have drink holders – how ingenious.
The first thing seen upon entering are local touches they incorporated inside their stores. There are local references in several places. This makes it feel less like a corporate store and more like Clermont’s grocery store – with really cool things to buy, eat and drink.
We’ve tried several things thus far one. One Sunday we needed something small to tide us over until dinner and we thought ……….pizza slices and beer at Lucky’s. Two pizza slices gives you a free beer. While we only tried the cheese pizza slices, it was good (especially for a grocery store), we would go back and order it again.
On different trips, we perused their cheese selection and who can resist a display like this.
With micro-breweries being the ‘Uber’ popular thing now, Lucky’s did not disappoint.
Another day Eric felt like ‘ramen’ and who doesn’t (me for example). Discovering that Lucky’s had a ramen bar was a hit for Eric. I loved the red carrier for the ramen containers – just saying.
Eric super enjoyed his ramen meal. Me? Wandering around in the store, I came across these cookies. They have both ‘crispy’ cookies and ‘homemade – soft’ cookies, but these were our first purchase.
OMG x 3!!! We’ve only tasted the ‘almond crispy’ variety, but we’ve gotten our second bag of cookies already. Eric – who doesn’t like sweets – was found snacking on them late at night. He’s not very good at hiding the evidence of snacking.
Okay, we actually had a ‘purpose’ one day when it was my turn for our Sunday meal. My decision for dinner was skillet lasagna. With our list in hand we got these groceries in the photo below. Now I’ve made his recipe before – definitely ‘Loosey goosey’ (The story is under the Eats! Page – no specific measured ingredients) but this was the best ever yet!
These were all purchased at Lucky’s. I don’t use any exact recipe just assembled the ingredients and started layering. In past renditions I didn’t add any spices – silly me. It makes a difference.
As I mentioned above…….best ever. 🙂 A little bread, a little butter, a little garlic salt and the meal was finished.
We’ve checked out their fresh produce and made several purchases. Their veggies are interesting and finding blood oranges are pretty unique, even though citrus is grown in the state.
One recent trip we found this display of herbs and yes, we put one in our shopping cart, along with our other purchases. They looked super healthy and I could tell they were a recent delivery to the store. I’m starting a mint garden at home and my herb purchase is already in the ground. With Eric making mint julips, mint is a prime commidity.
I’m sure there will be additional posts about Lucky’s. As I said earlier, I was not going to become a fan, went grudgingly several times but once the crowds thinned out and I could really shop and look around, I’m converted. I’m ending with a bit of their history. If this doesn’t interest you, thanks for reading so far.
Lucky’s Market was started in 2003 by two chefs from Boulder, CO. They wanted really good food. Being chefs they knew where to get it and shopped farmer’s markets and gourmet food stores in addition to conventional grocery stores for their purchases. They made a decision to do something about all that running around for good food and they wanted to do it right. They created an entirely different kind of grocery store, Lucky’s Market.
Darden Travels 
Like!! Thank you for publishing this awesome article.
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