Central Market amenities grow with renovation
On Wednesday, Houston’s Central Market marks the completion of a $10 million renovation and 10,000-square-foot expansion — the first major project for the grocery store at 3815 Westheimer since it opened in 2001.
The produce section is about 3,000 square feet larger, with wider aisles and more fruits, vegetables and herbs — from 400 options to 650. It’s now the largest produce section in the H-E-B network.
Other departments are laid out in fresh ways to appear larger. The wine area, for example, didn’t grow in size but has new shelving and lighting that allows shoppers to see more inventory. A new wine wall stocks highly rated and hard-to-find wine.
In the fresh-meat and seafood area, the store’s new in-house dry-agedbeef program turns out restaurant-quality cuts: Prime, bone-in rib-eye and New York strip steaks that have been aged a minimum of 21 days and a maximum of 89 days.
A new olive-oil section has a tasting bar with eight featured oils that can be tapped using a winelike Cruvinet dispensing system, as well as 350 selections of extra-virgin olive oil from around the world.
The expansion also made way for a larger coffee, tea and smoothie bar, where there’s a nextlevel espresso machine, cold-brew coffee on tap, nitro cold brew on tap and a prized Poursteady machine for pour-over coffees.
The most clever addition? A firstof-its kind, in-store chocolate bar where beans — sourced from Madagascar, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Tanzania — are roasted, cracked, ground, tempered and fashioned into individual chocolate bars or large-format bars for baking and candymaking.
“Central Market has a long-standing commitment to leadership in creativity and product innovation for the H-E-B family,” said Stephen Butt, president of Central Market, which has nine locations in Texas. With the completion of our renovation, this location now represents our newest and best expression of this promise to our Houston shoppers.”