Whole Foods, Pearl Street, Boulder

Brace yourself, Boulder. We’re about to have the best Whole Foods in the nation right here in Boulder. America’s “foodiest”small town is going to have an enormous new Whole Foods, and I had the pleasure of touring part of the new building just days before opening.

It’s only appropriate that Whole Foods name the new food stations after Boulder and Colorado places, landmarks, products, etc. For starters, the new juice bar, called 5430, celebrates our elevation above sea level. We’ll be able to enjoy freshly made juices, kombucha, and Allegro coffee at the coffee bar right around the corner from 5430.

The new addition is something like 26,000 square feet larger than the original cozy (or uncomfortably cramped) Pearl Street store. In other words, it is huge! And, with all that size comes more seating areas both inside and outside, more space to move around, and lots of new foodie features, like prepared foods, made-to-order foods, and other specialty items.

Whole Foods is bringing us something new- a Greens, Beans, and Grains station that will be super healthy, maybe deceptively healthy, thanks to a classically french-trained chef-turned low fat, low salt, low sugar, gourmet chef. Whole Foods will be continuing to embrace their “Health Starts Here” campaign and the Greens, Beans, and Grains will be the station to visit for healthy meals on the go. Other Whole Foods throughout the nation will hopefully have a Greens, Beans, and Grains bar soon.

And then, there’s sushi and wok-stir-fried Asian foods…

The Bear Mountain BBQ, which is said to rival even the best southern BBQ available.

A Taqueria which will have lots of different street tacos for $1.99 as well as a nice selection of Mexican foods.

The Lefthand Sandwich Company

A huge new bakery which will feature naan, pita, and flatbreads as well as every other type of baked goods imaginable.

This is really cool- it is the flat top oven that will bake naan, pita, and flatbread in approximately 2 minutes.

There’s going to be an impressive charcuterie station and Whole Foods will be featuring some in-house-roasted meats as well as some of the highest quality salumi you can get in the US.

I’ll probably be hanging out at the Cheese counter where we’ll be able to purchase cut-to-order cheeses. The cheese counter is right next to the fresh dried pasta bar. Yum!

Saturday, December 18 is the day to come out and see this with your own eyes. Hopefully you’ll get to taste a lot, too. The entire store renovation won’t be completed until next spring, but what is about to be unveiled is a foodie’s dream come true.