If you have not already been to Schnucks' new Culinaria, allow me to offer up a few tips. I've been there twice already and asked more than my share of questions. One employee asked if I was "some kind of secret shopper or something." Here goes:
Arriving - Enter the parking garage on Olive between 10th and 9th St. (Olive runs eastbound only from 12th St.). An elevator or stairs takes you to the entrance on street level. Your Culinaria receipt is your free pass out of the lot (good for 1 hour on weekdays and 2 hours on nights and weekends).
One's first visit to an unfamiliar store is usually a trip to the land ofthe lost. Culinaria is unique in that you can--and should and must--proceed immediately up the flight of stairs from the main level to the 6000 sq. foot mezzanine above, for three reasons:
1. You can survey most of the store from the mezzanine railing...chart your course from here. Take special note of the efficiency and simple brilliance of how a single queue serves all 10 cash registers. It's amazingly fast (and a godsend to saps like me who can, with amazing accuracy, zero in on the longest checkout line).
2. On this level is a 50 seat dining area. Grab-and-go purchases can be consumed here as well as on tables that line the sidewalks.
3. The wine and liquor department is on this level, too. I suggest making these purchases first to avoid making the trip upstairs after having made the bulk of your other purchases downstairs.
Convenience is at the forefront here. Check out the video kiosk (just inside the front door) where you can order sandwiches, salads and deli items, with the pick-up time precisely noted on your receipt. Across the store at the deli counter, your order number simultaneously appears on a video monitor and is continuously and efficiently updated minute by minute as the order is prepared. (Would that the monitors at Lambert International were so efficient.)
Culinaria makes a point of catering to downtown residents and office workers. If it's 8 in the morning and you know you're gonna want a chicken fajita quesadilla with Chihuahua cheese at 11:30, it's not to early to give them a call. The complete list of what's available is here. You can also place that lunch or dinner order when you pick up your daily ration of Kaldi's coffee or cappuccino; a satellite location is located right inside the front door.
Leaving - If you're in a car, you have three options:
1. Have a Culinaria employee accompany you and your shopping cart up the elevator to your car (carts are not allowed in the elevator or out of the store unescorted...they have fancy electronic wheel-locking devices that only an employee can override).
2. Arrange for an employee to help you load up on street level after you've retrieved your ride. There is some designated parking in front of the store for this purpose.
3. Schlep your bags up the stairs to your car.
Culinaria has certainly filled a longstanding gap downtown and has enough going for it to dispel any naysayers. It's the right size (smack dab in between a Straub's and a standard-sized Schnucks), the right hours (6 AM to 10 PM), and espouses to a higher level of quality in its prepared items...yet has standard Schnucks pricing for everyday goods. Is it Whole Foods? Doesn't want to be. Is it as fancy as Straub's or the Market at Busch's Grove? No. It's just Schnucks doing what they do best...only better. -- George Mahe
