I visited the Toledo City Paper site to check out "The Best" of Toledo. While I appreciate the paper's want to place emphasis on great Toledo spots, some of the results seem... dumb?
A best bagel place? Was this made for Barry Bagels? Lame. Where the fuck else am I going to think of for bagels in Toledo. Sure, a few places (like runner-up Panera), but this category is MADE for Barry Bagels.
Best grocery store is Kroger's? While I agree that many people probably shop at Kroger's, I would argue that Kroger's is not the best of TOLEDO. When I read a "best of" article, then I hope to find great places that are Toledo-centric. Not some place like Kroger's that is not, in the least, a Toledo business.
Granted, I think the TCP's piece is great overall, but they need to cut some of these crap categories/stores.
Toledo City Paper - Best of Toledo = Lame
Comments ... #
I haven't tried Aldi's but I have heard good things about them for low prices. I still wish for a Whole Foods so I don't have to drive up to Ann Arbor every other week. So damn yummy.
I find alot of the food Aldi's carry is better than name brand.
Box of ceral, as big as any major store...$1.29. Tastes as good as any brand.
Box of Mac & Cheese, BETTER than any other brand.. $0.33.
Hotdogs? $3 for 20 pack.
Frozen pizza? $1.
Bread? $0.70
Milk? $1.99 - $1.19....seen sales for $0.50 a gallon.
The food is great, the prices are mindblowing.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 05, 2010 at 05:00:49 pm #
"I still wish for a Whole Foods so I don't have to drive up to Ann Arbor every other week."
You could be wishing for a long time for a Whole Foods to open in the Toledo area. Remember about five years when the Westgate property owner Liz Holland announced a redevelopment?
First, a little context - November 2004 - Toledo Talk thread that referenced a Columbus Dispatch article:
... Toledo, the second-most unionized city in the nation.
September 2005 - Toledo Talk - Costco versus Whole Foods that referenced a Frank Szollosi blog posting where Frank said:
Carty Finkbeiner threatens Costco and Westgate redevelopment. Carty's choice is Whole Foods, whose CEO has compared unions to herpes. Whole Foods at Westgate would threaten the good United Food and Commercial Workers at Krogers.
January 2006 - Toledo Talk - Finkbeiner vs. Holland? - my comment in that thread:
According to Liz Holland of Westgate, Whole Foods has zero interest in the Toledo area market. That means they're not interested in Toledo, Maumee, Perrysburg, nowhere around here. According to Holland, anyway.Holland said Abbell approached Whole Foods about a year ago. She told Whole Foods they were talking with Costco about coming to Westgate. At that point, Whole Foods became interested in Toledo, but for some reason, Whole Foods later lost all interest in this region.
I know Whole Foods is a dream, but I still love that place. There is nothing better than their grocery/soup/hot&smoked selection. Their brick-oven pizza combination is up there with the best pizza places. A wet dream for Whole Foods to come here, but I wish some other local grocers (CHURCHILLS!!!) would follow their lead.
I can say that Walt Churchill's on Briarfield has THE BEST smoked salmon that I have ever had, but the rest of the selection is nothing compared to Whole Foods.
Hopefully, things will change soon.
As an aside, Walt Churchill's recently joined forces with Bob Carpenter, who is the same person that put Bassett's Market into the ground and believes in low prices over quality, so I my faith in the local grocery market has been shaken. Need I mention the Perrysburg Churcill's that Bob opened? The worst smelling and looking grocery store in northwest Ohio. Congrats Walt on your alliances.
You should try The Fresh Market, Toledo City Paper.
There's a store at 3315 West Central Avenue
http://www.thefreshmarket.com/stores/store_locationsDetail.aspx?StoreID=84
I shop there all the time down here and it's a wonderful experience.
much more enjoyable than Kroger...
posted by BrianInFlorida on Feb 05, 2010 at 09:36:13 pm #
I'd much rather have a Trader Joe's in T-town as opposed to whole foods, though both would be ideal.
I agree with you JJFad, it is lame and it is made for their advertisers. AND, the same stores, docs, bars and vets keep winning and you know they are asking their customers to load the ballot box for them. One of the local vets was practically begging its patrons to vote and then had the audacity to tell them who to vote for in other areas. I, for one, do not put any stock in the "best of" paper.
posted by golddustwoman on Feb 05, 2010 at 11:17:24 pm #
sorry, Aldi's is not just like major brand names. There is a reason it's called generic. Maybe for cheerios, but no way for frosted mini wheats, frosted flakes and pop tarts, just to name a few. My cats wouldn't even touch the cat food sold there. lol
I'll buy bread there and ground meat/burger patties, but there are some things that just can't compare.
TCP's list is nothing more than a way to get the top vote getters to advertise in their paper.
Exactly, If you are a likely advertiser you get a category and probably a head start on the tally.
The layout was hard to read too. They tried to cram every potential advertisier into it. The City Paper is ok at best. Not sure how much longer they are going to be in business. I heard Free Press is going to start a wednesday paper too.
posted by Molsonator on Feb 06, 2010 at 12:05:00 pm #
"When I read a "best of" article, then I hope to find great places that are Toledo-centric. Not some place like Kroger's that is not, in the least, a Toledo business."
JJFad, that's my main complaint, too, about TCP's "Best of Toledo." I've given up on TCP's Best of Toledo, which used to interest me when it first came out. Then I started noticing many, if not most, of the winners, aren't in Toledo.
"AND, the same stores, docs, bars and vets keep winning and you know they are asking their customers to load the ballot box for them. One of the local vets was practically begging its patrons to vote and then had the audacity to tell them who to vote for in other areas."
Golddustwoman, I saw that, too, about the vet, hahahaha. How political is that? Scary. The vet actually begged his clients to vote for him, and urged them to follow TCP's rules to vote for at least 30 categories for the ballot to count. If they couldn't fill in enough categories, he recommended that they vote for HIS choices - a specific chiropractor(one of the winners) as well as dentist, etc., even though they may have never gone to these people. The worst, though, in my opinion, is when this guy urged people to vote for HIS facility as the "best place to work at." Now, how unethical is that? If I have never worked at his place, why would I vote that it's the best place to work at? Creepy. Why is it that important to him to win this? Something is definitely wrong with this guy.
"TCP's list is nothing more than a way to get the top vote getters to advertise in their paper."
I agree with ya, Hoops. The winners advertise in TCP throughout the year. Then when they win again, they get to advertise as "the winners of Best in Toledo."
I agree, lame-o edition. I think the folks in charge are stuck on autopilot and want to keep repeating the same editions that might have been interesting (or daring) in the past.
Example: the annual Rants issue, which for several years has featured 2 or 3 staff writers/freelancers ranting in print. People who REALLY want to vent go online, and they don't need to save it up for an annual edition!
After seeing the Best Of issue become less relevant to my life, for the first time this year I didn't even bring it home. It looked like it was going to be hard to read (and still irrelevant).
Got to give the City Paper some credit; They are still in business despite being universally despised.
I take it for what it is; fun and fluffy. Not sure why something so trivial and harmless would anger so many. Besides that, it's free. Don't read it if you don't like it.
As far as the original rant about bagels. There are tons of places that sell them that don't have the word "bagel" in their name. Expand the horizons. Do you only buy shoes at Shoe Carnival?
Semi-interesting grocery store facts:
Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi.http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/do-you-know-who-owns-trader-joes/
The Bassets in Pburg was a Churchills for a dozen or more years before Bassetts came in and cheapened the place. Walt Churchill's Market got it back a few years ago, and run it along with their Briarfield store. The Pburg store seems to get better - not to mention cleaner - each time I visit.
Remember those giant cast-iron frying pans they had when Pburg first opened? They were twice the size of manhole covers. I wonder what happened to them?I believe the Central Ave store is still run by other members of the Churchill family, but if you know otherwise, do tell.
That said, I'm a Shorlings/Kazzy 5-star man most of the time as I don't like big stores in general. I imagine Hell resembles a understaffed Home Depot on a busy Sunday.
posted by SavageFred on Feb 07, 2010 at 04:41:48 pm #
"I take it for what it is; fun and fluffy. Not sure why something so trivial and harmless would anger so many."
Except for those who beg for votes. Not "fun and fluffy" then. Toledo City Paper has really gone down the tubes. I guess they'll do anything for money. Too bad.
Yea, the best bagel places, coffee and gay bars totally rule my life. :)
I guess it depends on whether you think TCP is serious journalism. It's not. Once you get past that, yes, it's fun and fluffy.
I'd rather read TCP than The Free Press. The Free Press is as biased as the Blade.
I agree that The Free Press is as biased (and political) as The Blade. Still don't like TCP, though. I rely on my local community paper if I really want to know what's going on. They tell it like it is.
So you're saying the Toledo City Paper's Johnny Hildo column is not biased.
I would say all the area newspapers serve different purposes, and it's tough to compare them against each other.
I have never read TCP for “news” and I suggest nobody else does either. It’s an entertainment/what’s happening in Toledo magazine basically. I had no idea anybody took it that seriously.
For Groceries..I shop at Aldi's. Aldi's can't be beat.
You are right though, some of the catagories seemed a bit silly. Still, it is a nice spread.
posted by OhioKimono on Feb 05, 2010 at 04:41:37 pm #