So yesterday we made the mistake of checking out the new über-mega Safeway that opened up today in Novato (or Ignacio, if you want to get technical and all). It's the anchor tenant for the new Hamilton Plaza shopping center, which seems to be shaping up nicely. Only Safeway is open at this point.

Anyhow, they had a preview on Thursday afternoon and evening, and apparently everyone living within a 50-mile radius of the place decided to show up. Seriously, you had a hard time finding a parking spot, let alone even getting into the store. You'd think people had never seen a Safeway before. It's a Safeway. A SAFEWAY!

It's a really nice Safeway, though. It's got both a Starbucks (hiss) and a Jamba Juice, which people were going all gaga over. It also features ritzy seating areas where you can sip your latté or scarf your Safeway deli sandwich or whatever. There's also a bakery with a groovy flaming oven that may or may not be decorative that seems to produce some bread that looks far superior to the standard Safeway "sourdough" balloon bread. There are even a few aisles I have yet to explore, since they were so crowded I couldn't even venture down them. Next time, I guess.

By far the coolest thing there was the nut bar, which had what appeared to be every kind of nut imaginable. There was also a bank of fancy grinders on the far side the oh-so-cool nut bar that allowed for grinding your own nut butters: several kinds of peanut butter (including peanut and chocolate!), as well as almond and cashew. There might have been more, but then my brain was overloaded and it was difficult to shop with the whole fight-or-flight thing going on due to the crowds.

Anyhow, it's the nicest Safeway in Marin. I'll hand that to them. And it may even be set to give the forthcoming (or not) Whole Foods in Novato a run for its money.