Big is healthy

There’s a lot of good energy at PILGRIM’S MARKET, even more so these days with the recent expansion of this midtown Coeur d’Alene business. Owners Sarah and Joe Hamilton have grown the business since 1999 when it was called A Trip to Bountiful, located in what is now Syringa Japanese Café and Sushi (one of many local restaurants that relies on Pilgrim’s for ingredients).
Pilgrim’s eventually moved across Fourth Street to its current location, quadrupling in size. However, when Liquidation World flushed out, the Hamiltons saw an opportunity.

One of only a few midtown CdA grocers, Pilgrim’s is the only site dedicated to healthful foods. Recent additions include a supplements section, more space for meat and dairy, and a new gourmet section with imported cheeses to complement wine steward Sam Lange’s selection of local and organic wines, esoteric beer, sake and chilled alcoholic beverages.

The tasting area is being expanded for Pilgrim’s Friday night sampling, and the deli has been outfitted with a cozy seating area for better-than-fast food. That’s where Dane Rice, one of 40 Pilgrim’s employees, cooks up treats like Selkirk Ranch grass-fed organic cheeseburgers ($6) or organic soups ($4), with ingredients from the market. A dessert section features such things as gluten-free pumpkin spice cookies ($3), as well as other sweet treats that cater to sensitive eaters.

And, with its newly acquired space — about 25,000 square feet — Pilgrim’s is sailing into the uncharted but promising waters of creating a total “wellness” center. It will be called the Pilgrim’s Wellness Institute, and plans are well underway to use the additional retail space for education and total body health. Cooking, fitness, and yoga classes will begin in January, as will lectures by industry leaders like Ann Louise Gittleman, hailed as the “first lady of nutrition” and author of The Fat Flush Plan. (She’ll be on hand Jan. 17 at 1 pm.)

Explained an enthusiastic Joe Hamilton, busily preparing for Pilgrim’s grand reopening on Jan. 17: “I think that the sampling and the education is a bit of a trend, but no one around here does anything remotely close to what we are doing.”

— CARRIE SCOZZARO

Pilgrim’s Market, 1316 N. Fourth St., Coeur d’Alene, is open daily, 9 am-8 pm. Click here or call (208) 676-9730.