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Food

Market and cafe born out of longtime dream

3/2/2010 7:11:53 AM
 
By Holly Ebel
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

There are at least two reasons to check out ZZest Culinary Market and Wine Cafe, one of the newest additions to the Rochester culinary scene.

First, there is a vast number of unique food specialties available for purchase. And second, the meals that are served during the lunch and dinner hours.

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12/19/2009

Zzest Culinary Market & Wine Cafe: Viva Zubays!

Answer: Jerry and LeeAnn Zubay

Question: What husband and wife team are transforming the Rochester food scene in a matter of weeks?

To say we're impressed is Great Taste's Understatement of 2009. 

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Wine cafe adds a little Zzest to life

11/20/2009

Last month, LeeAnn Zubay and staff packed up their Culinary Market shop next to 300 First and moved it into the former Avocados Bistro spot at Apache Shoppes on 16th Street Southwest, renaming it Zzest Wine Cafe. The move doubled their square footage - and it's already filled to the brim. They anticipated opening their new wine café today, and I got a little preview earlier this week.

The ambiance - market fresh

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11/03/2009

Rah-rah catapults to culinary major leagues--with Zzest

Rochester, when it comes to good food you're no longer in the rookie league.  The October 23rd reopening of Zzest Culinary Market & Wine Cafe hit one out of the ballpark. It's a whole new culinary scene.

LeeAnn Zubay, how can we thank you enough? 

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June 18, 2009

Zubays get ZZest-y

Ever see an out-of-the-ordinary food item on a store shelf and wonder how it would taste or even what you would do with it?

061009ex-avocadosspacezzest
 

The Rochester culinary scene’s well-known Zs — LeeAnn and Jerry Zubay — have a plan to serve up answers to shoppers looking for a taste of the uncommon.


 

It won’t happen until August at least, but the plan is to open a specialty grocery — ZZest Culinary Market — in the former Avocado’s World Bistro space at 1190 16th St. S.W. in the Apache Shoppes shopping center. 


 

The Zubays were originally behind City Cafe, Newt’s, 300 First, City Market and the Redwood Room in downtown Rochester.


 

This part of ZZest will be an expansion of the Culinary Market LeeAnn Zubay opened in the little building near the 300 First restaurant last year. She has specialty cheeses, meats, salts, chutneys, jellies and spices as well as “adventurous ingredients” on the shelves in the First Avenue store. 


 

“I am just finding such awesome stuff, and I just want to bring more things in,” she said of the move from the small downtown store into the huge-by-comparison 2,700-square-foot space.


 

About a month after the shelves fill up at the new ZZest, the Zubays plan to open a cafe with counter service to offer appetizers, sandwiches, lunch and dinner, as well as beer and wine.


 

“If you are interested in what this little jar of pomegranate chutney would taste like, you will be able to try it out because is we used it on the No. 4 sandwich,” says Jerry Zubay.


 

While there are still a lot of details to be worked out, also look for possible cooking classes and special tasting events where one ingredient is used in every course from appetizer to dessert.

Comments

Ha! I was RIGHT!

*High fives self*

 

Yeah Zubay's!!! We will be looking forward to their opening. They are so talented and their business is such a gem in the community.

 


 

Food

Compliments of the chef: She's in the Market

9/30/2008 10:10:42 AM
From being involved for years in restaurant kitchens, LeeAnn Zubay is now hoping to help you in yours.

In a little building next to 300 on First, Zubay created a food lover's delight. The Culinary Market, open barely three months, is quickly turning into the go-to spot for the out-of-the-ordinary, the unusual, the hard-to-find and above all, the delicious.

As Zubay eyes the direction she wants this market to take, she has the experience and the know-how. As the wife of Jerry Zubay, co-owner of Creative Cuisine -- think City Cafe, The Redwood Room and 300 on First -- she has been involved in the restaurant business as a consulting chef in charge of menu development and research for the company. In that capacity, she has assisted their chefs and at one point, helped bake pastries. "There isn't much I haven't done at one time or another. I love it and I love food," she said.

What Zubay has done is impressive. In this very small space, she has well over 800 different products. "Initially my main focus was cheese," she said. "I felt that was one area where this town really needed bolstering and I wanted to get ones that were not available anywhere else."

That she has done. A substantial cheese counter is filled with different artisinal cheeses both from the United States and abroad. There are varieties from Spain, Italy, France and Holland as well as from the Cow Girl Creamery in California and Sweet Grass Dairies in Georgia. Then there are olive oils, honeys and a big variety of salts and flavored sugars.

You can also get Iberico and Serrano ham, prosciutto and pancetta. Another popular item are the Tribecca breads ordered from New York. Multi-grain, olive and fruit and nut baquettes come frozen and you finish the baking at home.

If being around all this food makes you hungry, you can also get a sandwich and sit outside at a little cafe table.

Has she always been so passionate about good food? "Yes. In fact I started cooking in the fourth grade, things my mother would not have thought about preparing," she said. "I really got into it. Actually in the sixth grade I made my first cheese souffle. Later, one of my jobs in high school was working as a waitress and in the kitchen at Madonna Towers. I made salads and desserts on Thursdays and on weekends. I loved that job."

Q & A with LeeAnn Zubay

Q: This reminds me of a smaller version of an upscale Trader Joes. Is there any one thing you sell more of than anything else?

A: Not really. It is pretty even. We sell a little of everything every day. We already have a good base of regular customers, and what is fun also is we have quite a few who walk over from Charter House.

Q: The holidays aren't that far away. What sorts of things will you be bringing in?

A: We'll have more cheeses, caviar, pates -- lots of different and unusual items.

Q: So as involved as you and Jerry are with food, don't you want to just get away from it when you go on vacation?

A: Absolutely not. We don't golf. We don't hike. What we do is eat. We are always on the hunt for that new item or product or new dish. But that is what we love to do whether we are here or away. I do read a lot and I love cooking magazines like "Bon Appetit" and cookbooks.

Q: What about expanding or opening a second place?

A: We are pretty tight in here but it works. For myself, I can never do anything little -- there is so much more I want to do with this. For now, no. But who knows? I have a lot of ideas.

Culinary Market, 308 First Ave. N.W., is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 280-3875. www.culinary-market.com.

Holly Ebel of Rochester is a freelance writer.

 

 

New gourmet grocery will cater to the adventurous cook
05/05/2008 Rochester Post Bulletin

The words Zubay and food go together like wine and cheese in Rochester.

Jerry and LeeAnn Zubay are partners with the Currie family in Creative Cuisine. Creative Cuisine is the company behind five downtown Rochester restaurants, including 300 First, City Cafe and Newt's.

Now LeeAnn Zubay is cooking up a gourmet grocery called Culinary Market.

"It will be a specialty food store focusing on adventurous ingredients and imported cheeses," she says. "I hope to have all the really hard-to-find things."

Zubay hopes to open in June in the former Broadstreet Baking building next to 300 First on First Avenue.

Expect foods from Italy, Spain and small artisan operations in the U.S. Sausages, rare hams, pates and lots of imported cheeses will be on the shelves.


 

Culinary Market Open
06/17/2008
Post-Bulletin staff

Culinary Market, a new specialty food store, opened in downtown Rochester on Wednesday.

Owner LeeAnn Zubay staffs the small store at 308 First Ave. N.W. in a building near her family's restaurants, the Redwood Room and 300 First.

Zubay carries what she describes as "adventurous ingredients." That means hard-to-find items like specialty cheeses, of which she carries more than 40 different selections.

She also carries items such as chutneys, chorizo, imported pastas, olives, salts and honey.

And Zubay still has item on sale at Rochester Produce, 2112 Second St. S.W.

She is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

For more information, go to Postbulletin.com/weblinks.