Wegmans | Ballantyne

Description: A family-owned supermarket and food hall featuring a large selection of fresh groceries, specialty foods, and chef-prepared meals. The Market Café offers sushi, poke bowls, pizza, subs, salads, soups, hot food bars, and espresso drinks, with seating for 180 people across its indoor dining area and outdoor patio. The 110,000-square-foot store also features an expansive bakery, artisan cheese shop, seafood counter, international groceries, and ready-to-eat meals, combining a full-service grocery store with a casual dining and gathering space.

Comments: If you're like, “Why is a grocery store on here?” I need you to know it is in fact you who is lacking information. Let me school you for a second. Wegmans isn't the first grocery store to be listed as a third place, and it won't be the last. Certain Harris Teeter locations around Charlotte, such as the one in Myers Park across from the Methodist church, already serve as third places, complete with a coffee shop, an expansive upstairs patio with lounge chairs, a wine bar, free Wi-Fi, and a lot of soccer Moms who enjoy hanging out within its walls. Wegmans is just continuing that trend.

So yes, this is a third place. You need to visit before you judge my friend. Free Wi-Fi, a hot bar for food, a self-serve coffee bar, a huge outdoor patio with TVs and canopies, an indoor cafe area with large booths, even bigger than Panera's, plus all sorts of tables. I've seen remote workers and students posted up here on laptops, people meeting friends, Ballantyne Corporate Park people grabbing lunch, families grabbing dinner, and people reading quietly in corners. If you've ever been to a really nice Whole Foods, this is like that, where they have that whole corner that's basically a cafe attached to the grocery store. All the hype about this place opening might've been a bit overdone, but that doesn't mean it isn't an awesome space, because it is.

A final note, they have Wegmans Zero Vitamin Infused Water as their cheap version of real Vitamin Water. It's terrible. The Lemonade flavor? Trash. The Strawberry Kiwi? Booty cheeks. The Dragonfruit? Garbage. It's not worth saving a dollar. Get the more expensive, real flavored waters. Also, the hot bar is really good, so get you some food here. It's even better than the Whole Foods hot bar, which over time has kind of become mid to me. Oh and they have cinnamon rolls, so head over to the bakery section and get you some. They're alright.