Posts Tagged ‘mollie stone’s’

Whether you’re stuck at home with a sick kid or just too time-crunched to shop, sooner or later you’ll wish San Francisco had more food-delivery options. You’ve got your pizza, your Chinese, your Indian, and your Thai, but who will bring you a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, and a jar of peanut butter so breakfast-time isn’t a bloodbath? Do we all miss Webvan or what?

There are a few ways you can go. For $12.95 Safeway delivers in many areas of SF, and for big-grocery-store prices and total availability of products, that’s what you’re going to end up with if you want to have your entire grocery load delivered. Even though it hasn’t gotten such glowing reviews. You want something done right, do it yourself. Otherwise, order at shop.safeway.com, take the delivery and thank God they bring it right up to the door. Maybe you want to buy your fruits and veggies at the corner market, but this is the way to go for milk and kitty litter.

Like Safeway, Cal-Mart in Laurel Village will also not only deliver your groceries, they’ll go through the store and fill your cart for you. Time-crunched shoppers can call or fax orders between 8am and 3:30pm, Monday through Friday. A personal shopper will run the aisles for $15; delivery is free. The store is known for its fabulous fresh fish, cheeses, meats, and produce. The great big huge drawback: you must live between Fulton, Van Ness, Marina, and Beach Streets, which cuts out a huge swathe of city dwellers. Cal-Mart is located at 3585 California Street (between Locust and Spruce Streets); call 415-751-3516.

Mollie Stone’s, also on California Street, also delivers. You can either do your own shopping and then have it delivered free on the Mollie Bus later on that day, or the friendly Barry will do your personal shopping for called-in orders for a $15 charge, and bring it over during a specified delivery window, usually Monday-Wednesday. Their delivery area is a bit more diffuse than the Cal-Mart’s (depending on Barry’s schedule) but still hovers in the center of town. As an upscale grocery much like Cal-Mart, Mollie Stone’s also has exemplary meat and seafood, and a wonderful bakery and deli. Mollie Stone’s is located at 2435 California Street (at Fillmore Street); call 415-567-4902

Ask them to deliver an extra pint of bourbon for mom, will you? Oh, and some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Thanks.

I know several San Francisco moms whose kids take swimming lessons at La Petit Baleen in San Bruno, so I assumed they’d be jumping ship for the new location in the Presidio.

“Absolutely not,” one mom assured me. “The kids fall asleep in the car on the ride home. And besides, if I drive to San Bruno, I can experience the wonder of Mollieland.”

Mollieland is the child-minding center at Mollie Stone’s (upscale, expensive) grocery store. As long as they stay in the store, parents can drop off their potty-trained kids aged 2-12 in a clean, attractive little room staffed by a smiling babysitter who urges them to play games, fiddle with the computers, color, or encrust something with stickers. The kids are on closed-circuit TV, so parents can stop by the monitors in the store and make sure their kids aren’t screaming.

It is so much fun, says my savvy mom friend, that her children regularly beg her to take them grocery shopping (!) and to leave them in Mollieland longer (!!), and my friend gets to slowly peruse all the types of cheese, and maybe even sit down and have a salad from the superbly appointed salad bar, in total, blessed silence. There’s a Peet’s coffee too.

Since I regularly find odd items in my cart due to my daughter’s sticky fingers, or my own distractedness, see you there.

Mollie Stone’s Market is located at the Bayhill Shopping Center, 851 Cherry Ave. (at Bayhill Dr.), San Bruno. Call 650-873-8075 or visit molliestones.com. There is another Mollieland at the San Mateo location, 49 42nd Ave. (at El Camino Real) but none in San Francisco. Hey, Mollie Stone’s: Where is the love?