Chicago good food sources in Hyde Park area

[RobertCollins]

My son has moved to Hyde Park. I visited and was suprised at how few food sources were close by. Now I reckognise that I don't know the area at all (I did Make numerous trips to see my wife when she was in college at U of C) so the only store that I found was called Treasure Island which my wife thought was what she called the Coop in the sixties.

Could some of you educate us on what is reasonably close and good.

Thx edit: spelling

Edited September 19, 2012 by RobertCollins (log)

[KD1191]

Well, Chinatown is close, if you've got a car...

I've lived in and around Hyde Park for 10 of the last 13 years, and pickings have always been relatively slim. It's one part student/teacher enclave, another strangely situated bedroom community.

Yes, Treasure Island was formerly the Coop Market...it is pretty much the only full-service market in the neighborhood. That said, things are looking up with the opening of a Whole Foods slated for 2014. Depending on where you're situated, Hyde Park Produce may be more convenient, though it's generally not the same type of one-stop shopping as TI.

There are plenty of other specialty shops, a health food store (Bonne Sante), bakery (Medici) & coffee houses (Istria), of the types you'll find on or near college campuses across the country, but most of them are overpriced...catering to (generally) well-heeled students, their high-earning professors, and (less frequently) those of us who haven't managed to escape the neighborhood despite having long since finished our degrees & dissertations. I say less frequently, because I tend to do most of my shopping well away from home. The combination of a particularly affluent demographic, minimal competition and a captive market (students without cars and below-average public transit options) have generally made shopping in Hyde Park a poor choice.

ETA: I'm sad to say it, but as a car-less student, I mostly stuck to Peapod for groceries.

Edited September 19, 2012 by KD1191 (log)

[nibor]

Unless you feel like driving up the the Whole Foods in the Roosevelt Road shopping area, you shop at Treasure Island. People in Hyde Park complain about how expensive TI is, but it is relative. The prices there are much cheaper than where I live most of the time, in southern CA.

[AlenChris]

Good info. Would help me when I might visit Hyde park area in the future.

[nibor]

There is also a little grocery called Hyde Park Produce on 53rd St. A lot of people love HPP but I only shopped there once when I lived in Hyde Park. As per the name, it does carry produce. However, the other sections of the store seemed oddly stocked and I ended up having to go to Treasure Island on the way home to find most of the stuff on my list.