rvaYM

Last week's iced brownie bites. All-time favorite.

Ukrop’s is everywhere in Richmond: north, south, east, west. Even a few out-of-town locations through the years. While I don’t think I made it to all of them, here are a few, and some memories from them:

• Ashland/Hanover
  A few times while I was working in Mechanicsville, I would venture to Ashland and occasionally stopped into this store.
• Brook Run
  My first year at the seminary, this was the “neighborhood” Ukrop’s. In the evenings, it was nice and quiet, a good place to shop.
• Carytown
  When I finally had a car in college, this Ukrop’s was on my drive out to New Bethesda, but it was certainly my third choice.
• Chesterfield Towne Center
  When this store opened, it was the closest one to home, and a great spot for Friday night dinners when Dad was “cooking.”
• Crossridge
  Kim and I stopped into this store one time last year, after we visited the fabric store. Don’t know what we got, but I remember the fabric store.
• Gayton Crossing
  For a long time, this was a “far off” Ukrop’s in the West End (a long way from the southside before Rt 288!). Numerous times, we met Mom and Dad’s college friends (and one of Cameron’s future college friends) there during the holiday season. It’s a little closer to home now, and the only place in town that had a snow shovel during the great snow storm of December ’09!
• Harbour Pointe
  On August 25, 2007, Kim and I had been engaged for less than a week. The chance finally came for our families to meet, and where else to meet but Ukrop’s?
• John Rolfe
  As many Ukrop’s stores as there are in Richmond, I never had one in my backyard. Until this one. I only walked once, over the river (creek) and through the woods.
• Mechanicsville
  I stopped in this store almost weekly while I was working in Mechanicsville. I’d swing by for lunch, or pick up groceries before heading back to my apartment (college and seminary). A couple of our college students worked there, and their manager would become one of my youth leaders.
• Short Pump
  They say this is the chain’s #1 store, and I can see why. This is our backup store now — if John Rolfe doesn’t have something we’re looking for, Short Pump normally does (usually caffeine free Diet Dr. Pepper).
• Stony Point
  This was “home” for a long time. It was near school, church. In high school, we’d stop in at Subway for Wednesday night dinner and I’d swing through Ukrop’s to pick up dessert (mint Tic-Tacs for me).
• Stratford Hills
  I remember the old one and the new one. The new one is a definite improvement!
• Sycamore Square
  When my parents moved and we’d pick up pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner, this was our usual stop to pick up drinks.
• The Village
  A.k.a. “UR’s Ukrop’s.” I probably ate lunch with Jacob here more than I shopped for groceries. I think this is where I first really told him about Kim.
• Virginia Center Marketplace
  Like the Ashland store, I usually ended up in the Virginia Center Commons area while I was working in Mechanicsville. It wasn’t too far from the seminary, either.
• Westpark
  After we got married, this store was almost in our backyard (not as close as John Rolfe is now, though!).
• White Oak Village
  Is this the newest store? Kim’s office is just down the street, so we’ve eaten at White Oak a few times.
• Williamsburg
  In the spring of 2000, coach put me in to pitch against Walsingham Academy at William & Mary’s Plumeri Park. A flubbed up pitch out and three pitches later, lightning struck, the rain came pouring down and the game ended. And then we went to dinner at Ukrop’s.
• Roanoke
  The summer after Kim and I started dating, the Roanoke store opened. An underground parking deck, the farthest store from Richmond, and down the street from her apartment. How could I stay away?
• Fredericksburg
  This store has closed since the sale to Ahold, but I remember going a few times, maybe when Impact Virginia! was in Bowling Green?
• Old Midlothian Turnpike
  There’s one other store that has since closed, down Midlothian Turnpike, behind Putt Putt. I vaguely remember going at some point.

That’s a lot of grocery shopping and meals, and as I moved from the southside to the city to Mechanicsville to Short Pump, Ukrop’s has been like the corner store. Now we say goodbye to another Richmond institution.

Old friends were coming for dinner, and we had just returned from a New Year’s Eve trip. We needed a few things from the store to round out the menu, so I took the short drive to the Ukrop’s outside our neighborhood.

It didn’t take long to fill the shopping basket, and I headed for the self service checkout. Quick and easy, I’d be out in a jiffy. One by one, I scanned the items and dropped them into a paper bag, except for the fresh ground beef, which I put in a separate plastic bag (I didn’t want to start the new year with e.Coli).

I hurried home, unpacked the groceries and breathed a sigh of relief. Dinner might be ready before our friends arrived.

“Hey,” Kim shouted from the kitchen, “you didn’t get the ground beef, did you?”

What? I knew I had picked up the ground beef. I had even put it in a separate bag. Wait, I thought, I had left the bag on the checkout counter.

I grabbed my keys and hurried back to the store and walked up to the self service attendant. Before I could open my mouth:

“You forgot your ground beef!” she said. You got it, that’s why I’m back.

“I put it back in the refrigerator case. I’ll show you.”

Not “three aisles down, on the top shelf.” Not “it’s over there.”

“I’ll show you.”

Sure enough, she led me right to it. On the third shelf, right where she had left it. I smiled, thanked her and walked out of the store.

After 26 years of shopping at the family-owned Ukrop’s, that will change Monday as the sale to Ahold (Giant/Martin’s) becomes official. What follows over the next few days are a few highlights and memories.