Inside Whole Foods DTLA: More Than Just Your New Destination for Poke and $20 Jars of Almond Butter
By Katya Lopatko
On November 4, the downtown L.A. Whole Foods at 8th and Grand threw open its doors to hordes of urban professionals, who swarmed in during their lunch breaks to see what novelties this new health food Mecca outpost has to offer.
As soon as I stepped inside the 41,000 square foot space, I felt like I just walked into the middle of a party, one thrown by Bon Appetit magazine and Gwyneth Paltrow and attended by Instagram bloggers (everyone was snapping iPhone photos). Whisked along with the crowd into the produce section, I was immediately offered a taste of an apple, which team member Lucio sliced away from the whole and handed to me. Munching on the first of many samples, I listened to Lucio’s thoughts on the new store.
He had originally started working at Whole Foods when the company acquired Wild Oats Market in 2007 and offered jobs to its former employees. After a brief stint at Sprout’s, he has returned once more; Whole Foods has always treated him well, Lucio said. He then proceeded to urge me to check out his exploring nature Instagram, which I promised I would.
As an unexpected feature I had yet to see in a Whole Foods (and I’ve been to my fair share), in the middle of the fish department aproned men sliced up huge, raw tunas into poke cubes, bagged them, and handed them out straight to customers. One of them offered to take a picture of me holding a tuna; I was disappointed to learn he was only kidding.
After grabbing a sample cube of Gruyere (on sale!) in the cheese section — offering more than 350 hand-cut domestic and imported varieties — I made my way through the extensive alcohol department. In addition to the standard fare of beer and wine, including many sourced from local producers and 5 percent organic and/or ecologically friendly varieties, this location features an extensively curated liquor collection. From go-to top shelf labels like Grey Goose to local and handcrafted varieties, this Whole Foods can now provide for any sophisticated downtowner’s partying needs (USC students: take note for when you’re feeling too classy for Trojan Liquor).
In front of the wine and cheese, the far end of the store houses the bakery, prepared food, salad and hot food bars, and various counters. A convenient feature giving this department a techy feel, small stations for ordering smoothies, sandwiches and other lunch fare ahead are sprinkled throughout. The lunch-break shopper can now place an order, finish picking out groceries and grab their food before checking out.
Unfortunately, the ordering stations do not include the one novelty counter receiving more hype than the rest of the store combined: Chego. In the first of such collaborations at any location, Whole Foods has partnered with Roy Choi to bring his rice bowls, which have amassed a cult following at his original Chinatown food truck, into a market setting. According to Choi’s Instagram post announcing the partnership, he has “twisted some recipes,” is “using organic,” and most importantly, “making team members smile.”
A self-proclaimed Choi fan, the guy behind me in line informed me his entire office just across the street was “so stoked” for the Chego counter, and for the store as a whole. When I asked, he pointed out Choi, slaving away “at the helm,” scooping rice into paper bowls like a true man of the people.
After receiving my Sour Cream Hen House bowl, I made my way over to Choi and introduced myself. Friendly and personable, Choi explained that he decided to collaborate with Whole Foods because he liked the company’s way of doing business and felt comfortable with the team members. “They look like people I grew up with,” Choi said, adding that the company gives each location a large amount of freedom in decision making, empowering employees to employ creativity in their work.
Some features of the grand opening contributed to the overall spectacle but made absolutely no sense, as if some event planner went rogue and decided it would enhance the atmosphere to have a clown singing live at the “fast casual pub-restaurant Eight Bar,” which features a seasonal menu that changes four times a year, 36 beverages on tap, from craft beer to root beer to kombucha, and ‘boozy gelato’ courtesy of Nancy Silverton and LA Creamery. Eight Bar seats 175 people indoors and out and will probably be the site of many of my upcoming dinner outings. Unclear whether the singing clown was a one-time treat or will become a regular occurrence.
Outside, someone was taking down a photo booth that presumably had been printing logo-embossed snapshots of grinning foodies all morning. Though I missed it on my first visit, I have since discovered on subsequent trips the vinyl-listening lounge, where customers can sip their Stumptown coffee from the adjacent bar and ponder how Whole Foods has transformed from a mere high-end grocery store to their new hip and friendly neighborhood hangout.
From the Chego collaboration to the “local matters!” signs sprinkled throughout the store, this Whole Foods aims to play up its connection with the surrounding neighborhood, inspiring a small-town community feel in the urban core of one of America’s biggest cities. According to manager Mike Bowen, the surrounding neighborhood inspired many of the store’s features (perhaps explaining the infusion of hard alcohol into the gelato?).
In the process, the 8th and Grand Whole Foods promises to meet a growing demand in area and deconstructs the conventions of a grocery store with innovations that blur the lines between retail, restaurant and community gathering space. Whole Foods does not merely sell food; it sells a lifestyle, now available for consumption to a demographic slowly seeping into and transforming downtown LA, one luxury food retainer at a time.
Contact Contributor Katya Lopatko here.
