FoodieLand

Well, folks, we found it. Forget the Children's Museum, Findlay Market, Great American Ballpark, Paul Brown Stadium and even Kings' Island -- we discovered the area's best tourist attraction in... a grocery store. Yes, you read that right, a grocery store. You can keep your Whole Foods and Fresh Market; we have Jungle Jim's, the craziest, yet most comprehensive supermarket I've ever been in. According to its website, it's "a 300,000-square-foot food extravaganza and tourist destination!"

For starters, it's not your hum-drum supermarket entrance. Not pictured is a waterfall and a monorail. Yes, a monorail.

And the inside is filled with all sorts of silly decor, such as a full-size fire truck by the hot sauces, a 40-foot boat in the seafood section, animatronic cereal mascots playing in a band, an animatronic Elvis-impersonating lion in the candy aisle, a Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood in the English food area, and much more wackiness.

But with all the silliness aside, the store really is about food. It's almost overwhelming as to the sheer magnitude of food types -- you can get dizzy from all the options. It's like a hundred different specialty stores all in one. Michael calls it the Ikea of grocery stores. 

Cheese you need? There are thousands.

One of 3 cases this size

You need olives? Plenty of those. 

These, plus 2 more whole cases

Butter on your list? 

Who knew there were so many types of butter?

How about hot sauce?

The "Adult Oriented Hot Sauces" are behind tinted glass.

Fresh Fish? Got that, too. They farm their own, even.

Plus, a 1.5 acre produce section, an impressive meat/deli counter, hundreds of honey, olive oil, and vinegar selections, significant gluten-free and organic sections, and a huge international market divided up by country. What struck me the most were the shoppers. Living here in "middle America" you don't see much diversity, but in Jungle Jim's we saw so many shoppers of differing ethnicities and nationalities. I am pretty sure you can find anything you need here. Our Kroger doesn't carry a few things that we used to buy in Publix, but Jungle Jim's has them. (Mom, I looked for buckwheat pancake mix for you but turns out it's been discontinued by Aunt Jemima.) 

Oh, and I almost forgot the bathrooms, voted #1 in America!

Rest assured, there are real bathrooms behind these doors,
though I expected something more interesting than a standard restroom.

There's a second location being built in SE greater Cincinnati and the long-term goals also include a Food-themed Amusement Park! Watch out Disney!