Heartland Farm Direct Market now open

Heartland restaurant opens its market!

​Last week, the new Heartland restaurant opened its Farm Direct Market, a sort of locavore's farmers market/grocery store crossed with a deli, bakery, and coffee shop.

We stopped by to check out the airy space and its edible wares. If you want to see the new digs for yourself, the Farm Direct Market's regular business hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Here's what we found:

​Want fresh produce? Heartland dovetails the bounty of the St. Paul Farmers' Market's offerings with its pretty displays of everything from garlic to kale to mushrooms harvested by area farmers.

Looking for raw meat and fish? You'll find a whole refrigerated case with the same sustainably raised whole poussin, bison rib eye steaks, and red-bellied Bullfrog farm trout that make their way to the restaurant's menu.

Need groceries? The shop has refrigerators and freezers with milk, eggs, stock, sorbet, etc., as well as a massive display of what may be the largest selection of house-canned items in the metro: heirloom tomatoes, green beans, ketchup, barbecue sauce, pickled ground cherries, and much, much more.

If you want to eat immediately, the Farm Direct Market offers made-to-order sandwiches for $8, plus a few salads, soups, and hot items such as ratatouille and lasagna. There's also a lovely array of baked goods--baguettes, whole cakes, croissants, cookies, sugar buns--to pair with a cup of coffee, brewed on one of those fancy, hard-to-find Clover machines.

Giving the room a quick scan, we spotted a few prices that were noticeably higher than what's typical at the Wedge (Cedar Summit milk was $6 vs. $4, Larry Schultz eggs were $4 vs. $3, assorted squash was $2/lb vs. $1.69), but since Lowertown/downtown lacks anything like Heartland's Farm Direct Market, its customers will likely be willing to pay a little more for the convenient access to such premium foodstuffs.