Walden Farms, Delightful Palate, Johnny Jambalaya – Oh My!

In a perfect example of one of our awesome customers getting us to get off of our duffs here at Calandro’s to make our Salad Bar at Perkins *even better*, one of our Facebook followers, Courtney, inspired us.  She was looking for fat free dressing options and we couldn’t really produce because we only had one fat free choice (see below for the whole exchange).  This may have started as an innocent, simple question from Courtney, but it was a big deal to us that warranted a big upgrade.  So we went to our Calandro’s Culinary Think Tank to figure out a way to add the much needed fat free options we were missing.  And while we were there, we ultimately decided that we would make room for…

…a whopping 8 more unique, gourmet dressing choices.

That takes us from 12 to 20.  A 66% increase (!).  Like we always say (or maybe not): “Can’t let a good grocery salad bar crisis go to waste.”  Oh, and please don’t forget – we also put these out to encourage tasting.  So if you’re not necessarily doing a salad, but you wanna ‘try before you buy’, just stop by the salad bar, put a little in a plastic dressing container and taste away!  (Also – if you’re already shopping around, look for the ‘Try Me at the Salad Bar’ tags on in the dressings section on Aisle 1, the marinades on Aisle 2, and the olive oils on Aisle 4 to know what we’re featuring at any point in time.)

Oh, and please don’t forget – we also put these out to encourage tasting.  So if you’re not necessarily doing a salad, but you wanna ‘try before you buy’, just stop by the salad bar, put a little in a plastic dressing container and taste away!

So you’re probably thinking, “tell me the new choices already!”  Ok, ok – (drum roll…) the new choices are (louder drum roll…):

1. Walden Farms Dressings – Fat-Free, Calorie-Free, Sugar-Free, Cholesterol-Free, Guilt-Free

   • Creamy Bacon – just as the name suggests – it’s creamy and bacon-y and very good

   • Chipotle Ranch – takes Walden Farms excellent regular Ranch flavor and, as Emeril would say, “kicks it up a notch – BAM!”

   • Sweet Onion – for those of you who love an onion-y vinaigrette-style dressing, this one’s just for you.

2. Johnny Jambalaya’s Herb Dressing & Marinade – Locally Made and a Long-Time Favorite around here.

   • Awesome on anything.  Just ask Blaise Calandro, Jr. – one of the owners.  His go-to dressing / marinade for just about any dish.

3. Delightful Palate Balsamic Garlic Honey – Locally Made and Incredible as a salad topper but also for other delectable recipes – see here for more…

4. Cousin’s Creole Tomato – Again (see the theme here) Locally Made, Fresh Kept in-store, and great on salads and on grilled vegetables…

5. New Bulk Choices

   • Fat-Free Italian

   • Fat-Free Ranch

   • Lo-Cal Italian

And then, of course, we have all the favorites we’ve had for some time, which include local, Baton Rouge made favorites Hanley’s Sensation Salad Dressing and Re: Garlicky Vinaigrette, a great selection of some of our very best Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars, some of our fresh ground peppers, salts, and seasonings, and a host of standard dressings: Ranch, Thousand Island, French, Rasperry Blush, Italian, Bleu Cheese, Honey Mustard, etc.

So stop by, grab a ‘Calandro’s Salad v2.0’ (or just taste some of our unique gourmet offerings so you can find something new for home) and Enjoy!

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Courtney

Sep 8th, 1:59am

Hey i was wondering about the perkins rd salad bar first of all what times and days of the week is it offered?
2- how is it priced? Like what is the price per pound?
3- what fat free of low fat dressings (if any) are on it?

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Calandro’s Supermarket

Sep 23rd, 12:27pm

Courtney,

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. A quick correction to my prior response – we do have a fat free Raspberry Vinaigrette on the salad bar. So there is one Fat Free option there.

But your request for Fat Free has prompted us to look into making a change in our salad bar for the better. Right now we are tapped out on slots/bottles in which to put salad dressings, which is why we’ve had trouble adding more fat free and calorie free options. However – I just spoke with the Produce Manager David Silvio and we are going to rearrange some items on the bar to make room for 6 more dressings, which will include fat free and calorie free options (including your fat free ranch), while also giving us a little more space for other salad toppers at the same time.

This will take a little time to order the new parts and pieces for our salad bar, but as soon as we make it happen, I will let you know – and I’m so glad you offered the suggestion – its these great requests from our customers that help us to keep our options the best in B.R.!

Thanks again,

Blaise Calandro, III

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Calandro’s Supermarket

Oct 1st, 9:23am

Courtney – we’ve added a whole new slot for 8 more dressings and have now put Walden Farms Fat Free and Calorie Free Chipotle Ranch to the salad bar, along with Walden Farms Sweet Onion and Creamy Bacon (Ranch). Next week we should be adding a non-WF Fat Free Ranch and Italian option as well. Thanks again for prompting us to do this and tell your friends. We will end up with 20 different salad dressing options now with more to come!