Parkside. Simple chill bistro atmosphere, nice bar, and excellent table service. After dinner you can take a short walk over to the pedestrian bridge.

Most of the offerings at TJ’s are their own brand. So they clearly aren’t applying much pressure on vendor’s to curb nutritional abuse or broaden more nutritious offerings. Of course not everything is bad, but I have high blood pressure (a common condition) and am concerned about sodium in prepared and frozen foods. I like fresh fish, but they are limited to farmed Atlantic salmon. Most of their beef is marinated in sauces high in sodium, and “low fat” offerings are few and far between. Packaging, which THEY control, aggressively uses hard shell plastic containers. They ship their re-usable grocery bags here from Vietnam. Fresh vegetables are a joke there - with virtually every green packed in plastic. Can you buy grains there? I don’t think so. I love some of the trail mix of nuts, seeds, and fruit, but there is 7 grams of added sugar in a 1/4 cup serving! My point is, they sell primarily prepared foods - with little concern for healthy recipes, so they are pedaling obesity and metabolic disorders to people who are not mindful. There is a lot to resist buying there.

Trader Joe’s is a nutritional dirty bomb. We love a lot of the flavors, but there is a ton of junk food to avoid. The prepared frozen foods are loaded with sugar, sodium, and nasty food additives. A real Mecca for a nation of obese people. They should be selling insulin in every aisle. Lots of unsustainable packaging too. Oh, yeah, and that location? Who the hell approved that? Traffic nightmare ahead.