Lake Martin’s newest deli and grocery – Catherine’s Market at Russell Crossroads – officially opened on Tuesday, December 16, 2008.  I went by there today for lunch to check out the inside of the store and deli.  It was really nice, a first class operation.

As advertised, the market section had lots of cool, higher end grocery items.  The wine shop was well stocked.  I even found my favorite Rioja. I didn’t scrutinize the meat counter very closely, but I am sure that it is nice.

The deli was rippin and roarin. It was covered up with Russell Lands sales agents and employees.  I also saw 2 or 3 tables worth of people that drove down from Alex City, including Mr. Ben himself, one of my fourth grade teachers, and a lady we’ve gone to church with for decades.  That’s one thing I like about Lake Martin, I always bump into friends wherever I am eating lunch.

I played it pretty safe and selected the stacked ham sandwich on wheat with pasta salad.  It was good.  A friend got the 1/2 and 1/2 – the soup of the day was some sort of seafood bisque, which he really liked.  You order at the deli counter and then go and sit down, they bring you the food.  It took about 15 minutes for them to serve it, which I guess wasn’t bad for their first week.  With a sweet tea, I was in and out of there for about $11.00, which is comparable to another one of my Lake Martin favorites, Green Valley Market & Cafe.

My only criticism is that I detected some sort of flavor to the sweet tea, like a peach or fruit or some sort of whang.  It  definitely has some sort of fancy angle to it, to which I am morally opposed.  Just give me some straight up tea, please.  If you want to get fruity on me, please put it in a separate dispenser and let me know ahead of time.  Admittedly, I am a purist, a stickler for good sweet tea, so maybe I am on the fringes of opinion here.  But this is a relatively tiny complaint when put against the entire experience. It really was nice, clean, well run, and tasted good.  I expected all kinds of problems as this is their third day in biz.  None such.  Very professional.

Meat Counter:

Fresh veggie aisle:

Lunch menu:

I wish them the best.  I think they are a great addition to the Lake Martin area, I am sure to be back in the future.

Click here for the Catherine’s Market menu

And here for the back of Catherine’s Market menu

Also see:

All of the pics I took of Catherine’s Market, and my entire collection of web photo albums on Picassa, including waterfront property on Lake Martin that I have for sale.