Arteaga’s Food Center

I don’t live in the neighborhood, but I walked to Arteaga’s with my friend who lives nearby. The first thing she was looking for was some corn. Arteaga’s had a large bin outside, but it was filled with moldy and sickly looking ears. It took awhile before we could find 4 decent specimens. That didn’t leave me with much confidence, but the inside of the store looked much better. There was a large meat counter, and the produce looked fresh. My friend bought some skirt steak, pickled peppers, and assorted veggies. I wasn’t planning on buying anything personally, but I ended up buying tomatoes, onion, tortillas, & a jalapeño. My friend said she walks here frequently to get groceries. I couldn’t get over how sad the corn was, but everything else looked okay. It’s still a relatively small store, compared to a Safeway, but for a neighborhood market, it’s pretty good.

I love this place. Great produce, nice looking meats (I bougt goat), yummy marinated meats to throw on the BBQ. I cannot wait to go back. Forget about the lousy produce at Safeway. Plus, all the Mexican food goods you’ll ever want. I’m as white as they come, but wanted to make Birria. That’s how I found this little slice of market heaven. Better prices than chain markets. Update: Just found the salsa and guac bar today. Perfect roasted salsa. I really did need the larger tub.

Arteaga’s recently opened in the former Super Mercado Mexico located on Willow Street. I’m not exactly sure what day, but sometime in the last month… and what a drastic improvement from the previous market!
Reasonable prices, fresh produce, a nice meat selection, friendly service, and very clean!
They have the typical produce, but also have all sorts of uncommon produce items you might want for cooking Mexican cuisine (the least unusual of which is nopales, the rest of which I don’t actually know the names for) and random other things like persimmons and dragon fruit. They also have a massive meat selection with decent prices and a somewhat smaller section of canned foods. They even have Lactaid milk for $ 3.99 — a pretty good price.
The only thing that seems to be missing is a selection of fresh bread– common at many Mexican groceries.
So glad I don’t have to bike 2 miles to get to a grocery store anymore. I hope they succeed. Welcome to the neighborhood, Arteaga’s!