Harvest Grocery Grand Opening

Harvest Grocery is Hixson, Tennessee’s first natural and whole foods store (and the only locally-owned store of this nature in Chattanooga). It opened on June 10, 2015 and had a grand opening all weekend. I was excited to take part in the grand opening and get lots of photos to share with you!

Save for the few years that I lived on campus at UTC, I’ve lived north of the river in Chattanooga my entire life…most of that time in the Hixson/Soddy-Daisy area. Whole Foods and Earth Fare seem a million miles away…and I have major issues with traffic, so that complicates things as well. I’ve filled out store location suggestion forms for both of those stores as well as Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s…I’ve even sent emails. To no avail. It never made sense to me. This area of town seemed ready for such a store, but then a friend who works at one of those stores told me that a very large percentage of their business comes from the Hixson area. That explains a lot.

Anyway, I was intrigued when it became obvious that construction was being done on the old Hixson Pike Bi-lo building. I heard rumors that it was to be a Whole Foods, then a Fresh Market. When the “Harvest Grocery” sign went up, I couldn’t find any info for a chain named Harvest Grocery, leading me to believe that it must be a local start-up, which was later confirmed by Chattanooga Times-Free Press. The sign said, “Coming Spring 2015”. I couldn’t wait-it was just what we needed!

I was even more excited when Jon Moss, Harvest Grocery’s marketing manager, contacted me about participating in the Grand Opening. We agreed that I would do two cooking demonstrations and after a lot of consideration I decided to make hummus on Friday night and biscuits on Saturday morning. I served up six batches of hummus and 5 bags of Stacy’s pita chips on Friday night and 200 mini biscuits topped with fruit spread on Saturday morning. Everything was made with products from the store. I got to meet lots of interesting people and gave out lots of cards. I hope some of you are following because you met us at Harvest!

I also got lots of photos for you! I am not going to say too much about them…they mostly speak for themselves!

I met vendors from lots of businesses who will be selling their products at Harvest, including (left to right): Rembrandt’s, Olive Chattanooga (I had no idea how delicious balsamic vinegar could be!), Grafe Studio, Certified Piedmontese Beef, and Tennessee Moonshine Cakes. Matt from Pure Sodaworks was also there, along with many others that I didn’t get photos of.

Finally! Cruze Dairy Farm milk is available in Hixson!

Bulk food are one of the things I am most excited about. No I no longer have to drive downtown or to Hamilton Place for bulk coffee beans, spices, rice, beans, etc.

This was Philip’s favorite part of the visit…I’m sure that will surprise no one. He tried a sample of Big River Iron Horse stout.

Harvest has a great selection of prepared foods and deli items, including baked goods (some baked in house, some obtained locally from other bakeries), pizza, sandwiches, specialty gourmet foods, hot/cold bars, gelato, and specialty drinks (coffee, smoothies, juices). There’s also a great seating area (along with outside seating, which is pictured at the beginning of this post).

So what can I say about Harvest Grocery? I’m happy they’re here. It’s a beautiful store with a large selection of organic and natural foods that are not available in any other store on this side of town. They also give lots of love to local vendors, which makes me very happy. The prices? Competitive with the other stores in town of the same category, but more expensive than Bi-lo or Publix (hey, they’re selling a different type of product). I’ve heard some people say they were 100% organic or 100% local or 100% gluten free and they are none of those things, but I’m okay with that. They have plenty of organic, local, and gluten-free items. There’s truly something for everyone. All the staff was friendly and helpful…I hope they stay that way. That’s one of the most important things about a grocery store in my opinion (after the quality of the products, of course).

So, get to Harvest Grocery and support a local business that’s been sorely needed!

Harvest Grocery is located at 5414 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN (north of Northgate, just past Abba’s house and the light at the corner of Hixson Pike and Adams Road). You can call them at 423-847-0200. Check out their website, http://harvestgrocery.com/. You can “like” Harvest Grocery on Facebook. You can also follow Harvest Grocery on Twitter and Instagram.