Stew Leonard

One of the highlights of my Saturday with Richard this week (i.e., July 2nd), was our visit to Stew Leonard's grocery and dairy store in Newington, CT. This may seem like a strange highlight to some but I quite enjoyed the experience. This is not a regular, typical grocery store. Rather, it is like a huge barn where specialty foods are sold. They seem to focus on fresh items, locally produced (e.g., no cucumbers from South America). Mass produced items seemed to be minimal and limited to a few types of breakfast cereal and chips. They have their own bakery, butcher shop, and flower shop.

The Newington, CT store.

Since it was Saturday, they had lots of free samples. We tried donuts, puffed rice cakes, crab, oatmeal cookie, chicken salad on mini-toast (2 of 3 kinds), several types of cheese, and two types of salad and dressing. The only thing we bought was a bottle of Stewart's Key Lime Soda for Richard to wash down the samples.

I wish there was a store close to me; the nearest one is in Norwalk, CT. I used to take Richard there when he was a toddler to see the animals (chickens, goats, cows)(no animals at the Newington store). I really liked the salad items, and fresh veggies and yummy pastries.