Mid-Michigan Dining

• 7420 W. Saginaw Hwy
• Lansing, MI 48917
• (517) 323-3782
• Website

We accidently found Horrocks not long after moving to Lansing.  Our first day in town, we hit up the local mega-mart near our house and thought we were doing pretty good.  The produce was good and there was a huge selection.  Boy, we were naive.  Our first weekend here, we went to explore the town.  We were at the Lansing Mall and wanted to find Eastwood Town Centre.  We were way off, but we headed down Saginaw to get back to the Interstate.  Earlier in the day, we had stopped at the Lansing City Market and were really disappointed in the selection.  We had really hoped to find a place that would sell fresh produce at a good price.  Our luck turned around when I noticed the windmill.

I still remember that first time we walked in.  This was definately not a chain mega-mart.  There is a lot of produce.  A lot.  Chances are, if you want it, they have it.  That first trip, we filled up three paper shopping bags with produce and cheese and only spent around $30.  A few days earlier, we spent over a hundred at the supermarket.

Horrocks has a pretty unique layout.  When you walk in, you walk in between the cash registers and there’s usually a couple large pallets of sale produce.  Once you get past that, the rest of the floor is set up with large pallets of produce as well.  Along the back wall, there’s a bench with the oranges, lemons, etc.  In that first section, we’re usually picking up pears, peaches, Pink Lady apples, lemons for salad dressings, and oranges.  If you keep going, you’ll get into the potatoes and nuts.  Off to your right, there’s a small pantry area with some hard to find ingredients.  I buy my semolina flour there and I usually buy vinegar there as well.  For some reason, Horrocks seems to always be under grocery store prices.  There aren’t a lot of brand names, but it’s quality ingredients at incredible prices. 

The next room has the peppers, lettuce, and roots.  We almost always pick up a couple bunches of red leaf or romaine lettuce.  When we first started shopping there, they had arugula which I prefer, but they haven’t had that in a while.  There’s also a good selection of fresh herbs.  Today, I picked up a bunch of basil and it still had dirt in the roots.  Now that’s fresh.  There is also a huge selection of peppers.  They have the usual red, green, and yellow bell peppers, but there’s also the tougher to find Anaheim, thai, and habenero’s. 

Next stop is a narrow hallway with chips on one-side and a counter of prepared side dishes and homemade pies.  We’ve never actually gotten anything from here, but it always smells sooooo good when we walk through.  Where we’re heading is to the homemade bread display.  Each day, they have a selection of bread.  We always screw up and go on Tuesday when Monday and Wednesday’s are the days we should go.  We went once and got a loaf of Ciabatta bread.  That alone would be worth the trip on the right day.  Today, my girlfriend grabbed a loaf of Flaxseed Bread to make sandwiches for lunch with.

Go up a little ramp and you’re in the bulk candy section.  My brother loves burnt peanuts, so we’ll grab some of those for him.  My dad really likes cashews, so we can get him a container of those and my girlfriend never passes up the gummy bears.  There’s also a wide selection of mixed nuts and popular candies as well.

To the left is my favorite room.  The cheese and milk room.  You actually walk into the cooler where they have rackes of fresh eggs, milk, and butter.  Go through a little doorway and you’re in the cheese room.  Again, almost any cheese you can think of.  We almost always pick up a brick of bleu cheese and a couple packages of sliced cheese.  We’ve really gotten on a kick of Pepper Jack and Smoked Cheddar on hamburgers.  There are also cheesecakes and brand name cheeses in here, but we usually go for the hand wrapped bricks.

Head through the cooler and you’re in the meat section.  We don’t buy a whole lot of meat there though they do carry some brand name chicken.  The beef and pork all looks fresh cut and packed on site.  Every now and then I’ll pick up some bacon, but, like I said, meat isn’t a priority at Horrocks. 

Wind around the meat and you end up in the liquor section….and it’s huge.  My beer of choice is Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Yes, I grew up in a small town.  My dad actually drank Stroh’s and my friend’s parents drank Old Milwaukee if that gives you any idea of what I grew up around.  I got hooked on PBR while living in Peoria.  There used to be a PBR factory there, so there was a demand.  Since moving to Michigan, it’s been hard to find PBR.  Not at Horrocks.  They even have bottles and PBR Light (which I’ve never drank).

The final stop for us is usually another produce room.  This is where we pick up garlic, onions, pineapple, and asparagus.  On today’s trip, they had Michigan blackberries and raspberries, so we grabbed a few contianers of those too.

Horrocks was a great find.  Even my parents, who live four hours away, make it a point to stop at Horrocks before they go home when they come to visit.  My girlfriends mom works in produce at a Dominick’s in Chicago and when we brought her there, she kept saying that everything was cheaper than at the supermarket.  I think they most we’ve ever spent in a single trip was $60 and that was three bags off food that had quite a bit of meat and cheese.  Needless to say, we do all of our produce shopping at Horrocks.  Today, there was a little old man sitting just outside the entrance handing out roses to all the ladies that passed by.  When he stopped my girlfriend, he introduced himself as Jerry Horrock.  One of the owners.  Let’s see Fred Meijer or Sam Walton do that!