The Fresh Market serves up fine dining for dinner

The Fresh Market aims to take home dining up a notch with new turnkey meal solutions for dinner.

Called Ultimate Dinner Meals, the meal packages are designed to “take the guesswork out of dinnertime” while offering restaurant-quality dining at a convenience, The Fresh Market said yesterday. Each family-sized dinner includes an entrée with side dishes and, depending on the meal, appetizers and desserts.

“While these are unprecedented times, our guests still want to treat themselves to a special meal, whether they are celebrating a birthday, anniversary or even a Saturday night dinner socially distanced with some friends,” Dan Portnoy, chief merchandising officer at The Fresh Market, said in a statement. “That is why we are launching The Fresh Market’s Ultimate Dinner Meals, which rival the quality of any fine-dining restaurant meal. We are kicking it off this week with the Ultimate Steakhouse Dinner Meal, featuring our prime-grade steaks, premium appetizers and sides, as well as one of our signature desserts, a gourmet fresh fruit tart.”

With servings for six people, the Ultimate Steakhouse Dinner Meal includes six USDA-prime steaks (two first-cut New York strip steaks, two first-cut ribeye steaks and two chateaubriand-cut filet mignon steaks); two pounds of ready-to-cook seasoned asparagus; six ready-to-heat loaded twice-baked potatoes; one Caprese platter with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil; and one nine-inch signature gourmet fruit tart, which is made fresh in-store and has more than one pound of fruit.

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The Ultimate Steakhouse Dinner Meal costs $149.99, or about $25 per person. Cooking and heating instructions are included, as are recommended wine pairings.

The Ultimate Steakhouse Dinner Meal serves six people and costs $149.99, or about $25 per person.

The Fresh Market said customers can order Ultimate Dinner Meals online for curbside or in-store pickup. Those using the curbside option scan a QR code with their smartphone or visit shop.TheFreshMarket.com to have their meal ready in as soon as two hours, the Greensboro, N.C.-based specialty grocer said. For in-store pickup, customers order at TheFreshMarket.com by 2 p.m. to have their meal ready the next day.

Other meal solutions, which all rotate regularly, include Little Big Meals and Market Meal Kits, The Fresh Market added. Little Big Meals feed a family of four for $25 or less with these ready-to-cook weekly meals that include an entrée and sides. Planned for the last two weeks of August are fajitas (chicken or steak, sauce and fresh-prepped veggie kit, with the meal ready in 30 minutes) and fish and chips (parmesan cod and french fries plus two sides and pie for dessert).

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Serving two people, the Market Meal Kits are prepared in 20 minutes or less using one skillet for easier cleanup, The Fresh Market said. Each kit features premium, pre-measured, prepped fresh in-store ingredients such as boneless, skinless chicken breasts, shrimp, sirloin beef steaks, Atlantic salmon fillets and fresh vegetables. Some of the latest options include chicken pad Thai (non-GMO chicken breast strips with fresh vegetables, precooked noodles and sauce), pesto shrimp pasta (freshly prepped zucchini and squash plus pasta, pesto sauce and shrimp) and salsa verde pork chops (pork loin chops with sauté-ready peppers and onions and cilantro lime rice).

Also available are Value Meals and Holiday Meals, targeted at customers seeking seasonal meal solutions and those looking for a high-quality offering that serves more people.

This month’s choice is the ready-to-cook Seafood Boil that feeds eight people for $7.50 per person at total cost of $59.99, which The Fresh Market said marks a $25 savings from buying each item individually. The Seafood Boil includes raw wild American shrimp (2 lbs.); andouille sausage (14 oz.); The Fresh Market Best of the Bay seasoning packet; two of each one-bite potatoes (24 oz.), corn (four pieces) and corn muffins (six); and old-fashioned apple pie (nine-inch). The meal became available for order in-store and online on Wednesday and can be picked up in-store from Sept. 4 to 7.

Overall, The Fresh Market operates 159 stores in 22 states.