Grassroots Natural Market — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Grassroots in 5 points is the only place in Jacksonville you can buy high quality Natto. And if you don't know what Natto is, you should google "Natto Pubmed" and see some of the reseach on it... It's something worth having in your diet for sure.

They also have the best Miso brand, South River Miso, if you don't know about them... Their Dandelion Leek Miso is so good a jar of it was given to the Empress of Japan as a Gift... Grassroots in 5 points has the Dandelion Leek Miso, it's pungent heaven in a jar.

I make Vegan Mac and Cheese with it and I have no regrets about leaving aged cheeses behind... The Miso Mac is far superior in taste and nutrion... For the sauce I use Brazil Nuts, Hemp seeds, raw Garlic bulbs, Smoked Paprika, Black Pepper, Olive Oil, Miso, Natto and kelp/irish sea moss powder in a vitamix, sometimes I add an avocado or sunflower seeds too or some cooked veggies like squash, corn and mushrooms... All of which you can get at grassroots...

They have great produce for all kinds of recipes and sell locally grown mushrooms and micro greens that can't be beat. I use their Quinoa noodles for the mac and cheese, although they have lots of other great Gluten free organic noodle options. As well as organic corn tortillas, refried bean and green chilis for those of us that grew up out west and need green chilis in our lives for dips and casseroles and enchilladas...

They also have organic Tamarind fruit in a glass jar for anyone who loves Thai cooking or looking to Detox from Fluoride and heavy metals, google it if you don't believe me, Tamarind is powerful stuff and wonderful in smoothies with spiralina and "modified citrus pectin"-pubmed search that for more info on detoxing.

They have a decent frozen fruit section for at home smoothie makers as well as a wonderful smoothie bar with lots of options and add ins. The owner is very friendly and takes time to answer questions, makes the shopping experience very relaxing and empowering.

Most things in the store are organic and the prices reflect that compared to conventional, but with the unbelievably high amount of pesticides in conventional food products and the alarming amount of studies out that show highly processed foods are causing our gut microbiome to become "industrialized" and make us incredibly sick, it's worth it to buy local food, freshly picked with the highest amounts of nutrients available for our bodies withouth being covered in pesticides that harm our bodies.

We are what we eat and I like being Fresh, Healthy and Local, that's why I shop at grassroots and not wholefoods or publix. Grassroots has local produce grown with love, organically and delivered freshly picked, their local produce and microgreens are farmers market fresh and organic......

When you walk in Grassroots, you can't help but ask yourself, "who the heck shops here!?" It is once of those tiny natural grocery stores that generally caters to the extremely picky, extremely wealthy, hipsters, or those looking for niche items that you wouldn't typically find at a traditional supermarket. I have actually worked in Riverside for over 2 years and passed by this area hundreds of times and had absolutely no idea it was here. The only reason I discovered it was because a friend informed me that this is one of the few places that you can buy Hyppo popsicles by the box (and significantly cheaper than at the actual Hyppo store).

So, we ventured in at lunch time to find out what this place was about and I was incredibly surprised by the bustle of this place. It was quite crowded with a few of those people I expected to see (see above judgements) but overwhelmingly with individuals that I didn't expect - the average joe and even some that looked quite destitute. Now, I realize that you can't always judge a book by its cover... but you usually can. I was more than a little bit surprised by the demographics since this certainly isn't a budget-friendly shopping experience.

However, on to what they offer and why to go here. The very small and compact store is stocked to the brim with natural gourmet grocery items that you likely won't find easily elsewhere. Like I said, I specifically went here for a certain item and I'm sure many others do for the same reasons. They seem to have some very interesting products from alcohol to frozen items to breads, condiments, etc. It is a neat place and definitely worth a gander.

The front also offers some fresh items such as juices and smoothies which smelled wonderfully fresh and aromatic but I had a hard time justifying the cost of them which, natural or not, seemed a bit high. The staff weren't overly friendly which I thought was disappointing given the neighborhood market feel of the place, but neither were they rude or unhelpful.

I certainly wouldn't recommend this as the place for your weekly shopping trips, but definitely check it out for specialty items like the glorious Hyppo popsicles by...

I really love Grassroots and frequent here often, along with frequently getting their smoothies and typically loving them, and referring others there, too.

Today I got a smoothie, and they advised they were out of almond milk and would substitute for oat milk, which is fine, I drink oat milk almost daily. When I got my smoothie, I realized it not only tasted different than how it usually tastes, but it flat out tasted bad. I inquired about it first, to which I got every excuse as to why it “tasted like that.” I finally stated that it honestly just tasted bad, and advised the employee that they need to check the oat milk they used, to which the response was quickly “no, the oat milk is fine”. I explained that I’ve never had oat milk that tasted like that before. The employee continued to ramble off why it might taste the way it did, with another employee standing behind them observing but no communication was made, however there was no “I’m sorry, I’ll look into that” or “is there something else we can make you?” from either of them. Just a “tough luck” attitude. I finally just sighed and said “okay, this doesn’t taste good/right but I guess there’s nothing I can do… ” And left. Very weird customer service during this (although not the first time I’ve received unnecessary attitudes from staff or observed this with other customers being on the receiving end, so today was kind of my final straw with this factor). I have an extensive retail and customer service background and would personally not have argued with or responded to a customer like what I got.

After I got home, still having not drank the smoothie, I asked my partner to taste it to see if I was crazy, not explaining anything other than that, and they instantly made a sour face and said that tasted bad and also tasted freezer burnt, and they agreed that the oat milk was probably bad. I threw out the smoothie.

Edit: I appreciate the owner’s response, especially in regards to addressing the customer service factor. Something needed to be said, and issues can’t be resolved unless there is...