Artsfest, Vote and Texas Olive oil!

Happy December everyone!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did. Thanks to you Wheatsville had its biggest and best Thanksgiving ever.

I want to share a couple of comments we received that made us feel great. From Twitter on the night before Thanksgiving "Wheatsville=best grocery store ever. 5 diff ppl just helped me & i didnt even have 2 ask. & it's fairly uncrazy in there. Go give them ur $."
From Facebook: "thank you for making my first vegetarian thanksgiving a succesful and easy one! I would have been lost if it wasn't for your great vegan gravy and selection of alternative meats!!!"

And, my favorite Yelp review lately:
"i went to wheatsville this weekend, for the first time since the massive redesign/revamp, and boy was i impressed.  i always loved the charm of wheatsville when in college, and years later, driving  by such a great example of grocery store done right brings a smile to my face. 

walking into wheatsville, you are immediately greeted by fresh, local, and organic produce.  everything is clearly and lovingly labeled with state/country of origin, and organic or conventional farming methods.  the staff are friendly and plentiful, and never made me feel like i wasn't part of some elite vegan master-race. 

moving on from the produce, the meat freezer and fridge has labels to inform you just how many miles your beef, chicken, or pork travelled to get to said fridge.  how awesome is that. 

my only complaint about wheatsville is that it is so great, i wanted to spend most of my paycheck here.

congrats on the renovations, wheatsville, and i think i'll be seeing you again soon."

ArtsBEST!
We are very very excited around here because this weekend is the Wheatsville Artsfest! This 2 day arts, crafts and music festival is truly an Austin tradition and one of our favorite weekends of the year. I hope you can make it down between 10 and 5 this weekend. This year, the first in our new store finds us stretching the festival out all over the neighborhood with the help of our friends up and down the street. Look for artists at My Cleaners across the street from Wheatsville and at the plaza with Tom's Tabooley, SOnny's Vintage and Antone's Records. And, art and music at Spider House and the I Love Video and EcoClean parking lot! I'll include a schedule of music at the end of the e-mail. This is truly a team effort and we hope you have a really fun time! Parking is always a challenge for Artsfest so we ask you to consider bussing, walking or biking to the festival if possible. If you do have to drive, please consider parking in the neighborhoods around the festival to free up parking spots at the store for people simply trying to grocery shop. We would sure appreciate it! If you're trying to shop this weekend. I recommend shopping early (we do open at 7:30 am these days) or come by AFTER Artsfest at 6 or later to have the easiest parking time. Thank you in advance for your support of the Artsfest and the store! We sure do appreciate it!

It really is one of the coolest chances to meet local artists and craftspeople and get any gift buying you need to do accomplished locally! (And yes, anything you buy for yourself at Artsfest can be considered a gift!)

Come for the Artsfest, stay for the breakfast, lunch and dinner! We'll have our normal lovely offerings from the deli and our delicious hot bar will be open from 11-7 to fill you up with our awesome victuals! And, experience our brand new heaters on the patio starting this weekend

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Vote. Seriously. The vote ends on Dec. 9th at 6pm. And that is COMING RIGHT UP! Vote on-line at http://wheatsville.coop/election/index.html
We have some really great board candidates this year as well as some truly deserving charitable organizations. Please take a few moments, review the candidates and issues and vote! Thanks you for your participation.

In The Grocery Aisle with Justin Merrifield, Grocery Buyer
It's a new month and that means NEW specials! Check out the link for a pdf of our monthly Co-op Advantage Deals! http://wheatsville.coop/CAP%20flyers/SW1209.pdf In addition to deals, it has recipes for Spiced Eggnog Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust, Almond Shortbread, and Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus. Check it out!

Texas Olive Ranch Flavored Olive Oils:
New at Wheatsville are the Mesquite and Garlic olive oils from Texas Olive Ranch. These tasty oils are made from arbequina olives grown in Texas. The mesquite oil has been a common ingredient in my house lately. This extra virgin olive oil is actually smoked instead having premade smoke flavor added. The taste is authentic and delicious. I've been quite impressed with it. Read more at http://texasoliveranch.com/

I hope to see you this weekend!

Have a great week,
Dan Gillotte
Wheatsville GM and e-mail guy