Northeast Ohio's First Giant Eagle Market District Introduces Customers To A New World Of Food

CLEVELAND, Aug. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Get ready, because Northeast Ohio is about to discover the Ooooo in Food!

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Inspired by the open-air markets of Europe and a true passion for food, Giant Eagle, Inc. opens its first Market District food store in Northeast Ohio – a 94,000-square-foot culinary, dining and shopping destination – on Thursday, August 8, in the Solon Village Shopping Center.

Market District appeals to food enthusiasts who enjoy the sights, smells and tastes of fresh, new and exciting foods. The Solon Market District, the seventh for the multi-format food retailer, delivers a food utopia to Northeast Ohio residents with a mix of the best in everyday offerings and unique foods from around the world. Whether shopping in store or taking advantage of the location's unique Curbside Express online grocery ordering experience, the new Solon Market District is sure to whet any northeast Ohio foodie's appetite.

On August 8, Michael Symon, host of ABC's "The Chew", will help celebrate the grand opening of Solon Market District. Michael will join Giant Eagle's Chief Executive Officer, Laura Karet, to cook one of the Iron Chef's yet to be unveiled recipes in the Market District's state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen.

When customers visit this new store, they will enjoy a world-class shopping and dining experience bursting with amazing food and food expertise, with everything from cooking demonstrations to celebrity chef appearances and interactive events.

Market District's 400 team members are passionate about food and ready to deliver exceptional service by sharing new products, recipes and culinary ideas. The Market District team includes graduates of the Culinary Institute of America, Ohio State University and University of Akron, complementing Giant Eagle-certified cheesemongers and other food professionals.

The best of the unique and the everyday
The Solon Market District welcomes customers from across the area to a new world of food, where they can sample restaurant-quality dishes and find unique meat, produce, cheese and grocery selections from around the globe. Additionally, Market District also satisfies customers' weekly shopping needs. While Market District does offer unique items not available elsewhere, it also sells everyday items like brand-name detergents, cola products and a number of other items you would expect to find in a traditional Giant Eagle supermarket at the same low prices.

The Solon Market District also features many of the products, promotions and other savings opportunities that customers have come to expect from Cleveland-area Giant Eagle locations, including the retailer's recent price reduction efforts, great weekly specials, strong pharmacy offerings highlighted by the $4 and $10 generic prescription drug program, doubling of manufacturer coupons up to $0.99  and the popular fuelperks! customer loyalty program.

A Retail Wonderland
Martha Stewart called Market District "a veritable retail wonderland," and Guy Fieri "the Disneyland of grocery stores." The new store offers many opportunities to discover the "Ooooo" in food. The Solon Market District features:

• A bounty of garden fresh produce that features domestic, specialty, regionally grown and seasonal fruits and vegetables, including more than 120 organic  varieties.
• A gourmet burger station which features perfectly grilled, delicious hamburgers made from meat fresh ground in-store by our butchers, with housemade burger sauce and hand-cut french fries. Try our house special: Solon Burger with smoked Gouda cheese and pepper smoked bacon, $5.99.
• Curbside Express enables online grocery ordering at MarketDistrict.com/Curbside and provides a flexible schedule for easy pickup at the front of the store. Market District Team Members act as personal shoppers, carefully select the items on the grocery list and bring them to the store's dedicated outside Curbside Express Pick-Up vehicle lane on the selected date and time.  Customers are able to pay for their order without leaving their car, while Team Members load their items into the vehicle.
• A sweet shop features the finest hand-dipped chocolate novelties, gourmet confections and nostalgic candy classics like Necco Wafers and Pixie Stix, as well as fresh-roasted nuts, hand-dipped caramel apples, just-spun cotton candy and fresh, homemade kettle corn.
• A smoke and fire slow-roasting rotisserie includes fire-grilled, juicy roasted meats, ribs, chicken and more.
• A variety of hot and cold food bars feature a smorgasbord of home-style favorites, authentic international dishes, spicy wings, garden-fresh vegetables and gourmet toppings.
• Market District sushi chefs transform fresh seafood into classic Japanese maki rolls, nigiri, sashimi, and bento with organic rice.
• An artisan cheese shop offers 400-plus handcrafted domestic and imported cheeses, including fresh hand wrapped mozzarella, goat & sheep's milk cheeses from Europe & the Americas and an array of enticing Goudas, Blue's and mountain cheeses.
• Market District offers our very own in house roasted meats, as well as the finest in charcuterie, showcasing imported cured meats from Italy and Spain, unique artisan products such as Fra' Mani Handcrafted Salumi and La Quercia from Iowa. Our Delicatessens take particular pride in the roasting, smoking and curing process. Choose from our NYC style corned beef, pastrami & brisket, our famous roasted turkey breast or smoked turkey breast, or good old fashioned roast beef. We think you won't find a better alternative.
• Expertly selected and cut fresh meat and seafood, including dry-aged beef, chicken sausage made in-store, hard-to-find meats such as grass-fed beef, bison and game, Nature's Basket antibiotic free meats and poultry and more; high-quality seafood from sustainable sources such as Alaska salmon and Gulf of Maine cod; a wide assortment of shellfish, including wild American shrimp, jumbo sea scallops, live clams, oysters and lobsters; and salmon burgers, crab-stuffed salmon and jumbo lump crab cakes.
• A cornucopia of international foods with more than 10,000 natural and organic items, international items and unique specialty groceries.
• A bulk foods section that includes 12 varieties of olive oil and vinegars, 28 varieties of teas, 48 spices and more than 60 bulk foods items, including rice/beans/grains, nut meats, granola/cereals, dried fruit, trail/party mixes and confectionary.
• Straight-from-the-hearth artisan breads, crafted at dawn and baked fresh daily alongside made-from-scratch cookies and donuts, as well as boiled and hearth-baked bagels.
• A beverage bar with coffee roasted on site to brew frothy cappuccinos and creamy lattes, seasonal specialty drinks, mulled cider, eggnog and fruit smoothies made with fresh-squeezed juices.
• An ongoing schedule of in-store events to entertain and educate shoppers, including live music and daily cooking demonstrations from resident and celebrity chefs.
• A spacious and inviting in-store restaurant featuring free Wi-Fi and real tableware.
• A beer and wine store with more than 1,800 wines from around the world and a selection of more than 800 beers to enjoy with a delicious Market District meal. In addition, a full state liquor agency carries more than 1,000 spirits.
• An expanded health, beauty and wellness department filled with natural and organic cosmetics, vitamins, supplements and personal care products, and staffed with a licensed skin care professional and a licensed dietitian conducting ongoing wellness events and activities.

Grand Opening Festivities
The store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is located at 34310 Aurora Road in Solon. It will replace the Solon Giant Eagle which will close at 3:00 pm the day before the Market District store opens. The grand opening is being celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the store featuring Market District executives and celebrity chef Michael Symon. The store will host many more exciting activities and events for customers throughout the month of August.

Michael Symon joins a long list of celebrities who have visited Market District and raved about the store, including Cake Boss Buddy Valastro, Guy Fieri and Martha Stewart. Adam Richman, host of the Travel Channel's popular show, "Man vs. Food", called Market District "heaven's gift to foodies."

Other Grand Opening activities include an appearance by the "Cheese Lady", Sarah Kaufmann creating cheese sculptures throughout the day on Saturday, August 17^th. Also, on Sunday, August 18^th, Martin Yan will be making a celebrity appearance. In addition other events throughout the month include a veggie artist, sugar sculptor, giveaways and musical performances.

About Market District from Giant Eagle
The Giant Eagle Market District destination store offers an enhanced food shopping experience geared toward food enthusiasts. Market District offers specialty and unique items not found elsewhere in an environment where customers' passion for food is cultivated by a staff of food experts. In seven locations, three in Ohio and four in southwestern Pennsylvania, the Market District stores feature teams of chefs and other culinary professionals preparing fresh foods from scratch daily. Market District also offers customers the rare opportunity to find natural, organic, specialty and other unique items paired with the convenience of favorite national brands and everyday needs, all under the same roof. Further information can be found at MarketDistrict.com.

Giant Eagle Inc., ranked 29th on Forbes magazine's largest private corporations list, is one of the nation's largest food retailers and distributors with approximately $9.9 billion in annual sales. Now celebrating the 25^th anniversary of its Apples for the Students program, Giant Eagle is a recent recipient of Grocery Headquarters' Retailer of the Year Award and the EPA's ENERGY STAR Retail Partner of the Year Award. Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle, Inc. has grown to be the number one supermarket retailer in the region with 229 supermarkets and 188 fuel and convenience stores throughout western Pennsylvania, north central Ohio, northern West Virginia and Maryland.

SOURCE Giant Eagle