V L.
Yelp
First impressions are I am impressed the store actually opened at 7 am on a Saturday morning. I thought I would be the only weirdo walking in but there were already customers shopping, some with their young kids and others on their own.
I was greeted by a couple of people but otherwise left to my own. I picked up a few of the grand opening specials including mangoes (5 for $5), avocados (5 for $5), ribeye steak ($9.99/lb), lobster tails (2 for $10), and a baguette from St. Germain ($1).
I liked that workers were friendly to customers and with each other; most of them were doing something, and I liked that in the seafood and meat area, there were employees behind the counter.
You'd think some of the items were expensive, but I found reasonably priced items throughout, including grapes for $1.99/lb, mushrooms for $1.99, and tomatoes for $1.78/lb.
Of course, it being a new store and seemingly all on one floor (there is parking below and there is a floor above for the bar), it made navigating through the aisles a breeze. I stuck mostly to the perimeter and noticed a few interesting things including an area with a pasta bar (right now it's $4.99/lb and there were cooking instructions for the ravioli, gnocchi, tortellini, etc.), self serve mochi (2 for $3, 10 for $12), and a juicer for orange juice.
I was bummed the salad bar area wasn't stocked when I finally got around to it. There might have been some hot breakfast items and a little bit of salad, but most of the area was empty. I also didn't see my beloved pecan roll/sticky bun or see cake balls in the tea cookies section. I made up for it with the purchase of a croissant ($1.99, eh tasting), a jelly filled beignet and a chocolate beignet filled with nutella (each $1.59). Bagels were $0.99 each.
All in all, not too bad and pretty public transportation friendly. The X1 and X2 pick up right outside the store; the DC Streetcar rolls by periodically; there is a Capital Bikeshare station across the street, and there is bike parking along the front on H St.