Introducing Whole Foods Playa Vista!

Big news….the first Whole Foods Market to open in Los Angeles since 2008 is here!  Welcome Whole Foods Playa Vista!

Take a tour of this store with us.  Let’s start with my FAVORITE feature, the juice bar.  As you know as a Club MomMe fan, we sorta kinda love vegetables and fruit, and juice, well…we swoon over juice.  Whole Foods Playa Vista has the biggest juice bar we have ever seen in a Whole Foods store, and for the first time ever, an Acai Bar!

Whole Foods partnered with Sambazon for their first Acai Machine which dispenses super dense Acai from a machine that looks like a yogurt machine.  We prefer ours with blueberries, strawberries and bananas.

Speaking of fruit and veggies, we love smoothies.  Every single morning, my husband makes a smoothie for our entire family using our Vitamix.  For picky eaters, its a great way to ensure they get their servings of veggies, fruit, protein and more.  We pack ours with protein powder, green powder, kale, spinach and lots of other yum.

Since I am allergic to milk and soy, we have always used almond milk.  That is until our youngest popped up allergic to almonds.  So we now use coconut milk for our smoothies, and it is delicious and a very good, healthy fat!  This smoothie bar features acai, maca, pea protein (my favorite) and more!

Speaking of fun in-store customization bars, check out this incredible Ahi Poke bar!  Poke is having a moment right now, but if you have ever traveled to Hawaii, you know this delicious and light dish has always been popular on the islands.

One of the seafood chefs at the new store spent two years at a Whole Foods store in Hawaii, and was trained on how to make poke.  Much like making sushi, it is an art, and requires not just fresh, sushi-grade fish, delicious ingrediants and good flavor combinations, but also a happy positive mood while making the dish.  Much like the woman in “Like Water for Chocolate” explained, you can translate your emotions into food.

So we have talked a lot about bars in this new Whole Foods store.  So can you imagine a REAL bar in the store?  How about a Lounge?  Check out this state of the art, gorgeous bar with local beers on tap, $2 off all beers every day from 4-7 pm, and a wood-burning oven.

Chefs can make everything from pizza to tangine to faux fish tacos and more.  #nomnom

With a bar area and tables, this is the perfect place for a post-work drink, a much needed mom’s afternoon out, and you can pick up dinner too!

Speaking of picking food up, there are Express Checkout Lines located right next to the hot prepared foods, making it ultra convenient so you don’t have to wait in line behind me when I am buying half of the store.  Sorry!

A few other things we love:

• Instacart offers delivery of ANY item in store, in as little as one hour.  This includes prepared foods!  If you don’t see what you want on their site, just type what you are looking for in to the app.  LOVE.
• Local Companies: Whole Foods really forages for local items, and this store is no exception.  From Soaptopia (store located in Venice), to a ketchup made by moms in the Palisades frustrated that their kids would not eat veggies (and features veggies much like Fresh Brothers pizza sauce does for kids) to popsicles and more.
• Local Farmers: Also, local farms are featured and highlighted to cut down on transportation time, get you the fruit and veggies when they are the best, and support our local farmers!
• Paleo: There is a whole Paleo case in the fruit and veggies area!
• Organic Fruit + Veggies: There is 20 feet of space dedicated for JUST organic fruits and veggies!
• Family-Friendly: Playa Vista is known for it’s families, and they have a HUGE selection of baby and toddler food.  Seriously, it is an incredible aisle (and we made some suggestions to the food foragers too!) but it is an incredible selection