Ronnie’s Country Store
by Anna Sandelli

Ronnie Horton is late to meet me, but it’s hard to fault him for it. The reason? A shopper has just requested fresh corn, and the owner of Ronnie’s Country Store has stepped out to visit his produce suppliers and find it.

This commitment to customers is one explanation for why the street-side market remains popular in an age marked by super-sized chain stores.

Like these stores, Ronnie’s sells staples like Cheerios and chicken soup, making it a blessing for downtown residents. However, it is fresh produce that sets the store apart and brings visitors from surrounding counties to the corner of Cherry and Seventh streets.

“In season, we buy everything local that we can buy,” Horton says. During the summer, rows of carrots, tomatoes, green beans, peaches, and potatoes brighten the store’s exterior. Even as autumn approaches, fresh food remains available.

“Beginning in September, you get into the greens season,” Horton notes. Creecy greens, a customer favorite, make a tasty garnish for country ham, the store’s No. 1 seller. Not only do these sugar-cured hams adorn the store’s back wall; they’ve also been shipped across the country.

In 1994, Horton purchased the store from the White family, which opened it in 1925 and moved it across the street to its current location after a 1969 fire. Step inside, and you return to an era in which customers arrived by wagon.

Barrels of old-fashioned candies in flavors like coconut and sassafras line the store’s wooden floor, their prices marked with hand-written signs. Well-worn cooking utensils and faded advertisements serve as decor. Though the space is busy, shoppers make way for one another.

It is this environment that draws some residents to the store even when they don’t need to buy anything. Horton says that individuals without family often stop by just to chat, and grandparents bring grandchildren to show them a scene from their own childhood.

“I think [the store] is a reminder of how things used to be,” he adds. “I think more than anything else it’s the atmosphere of times past, when things were simpler.”

If You Go: 642 N. Cherry St. Open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. 336-724-5225.

Oriental Oasis
by Bill Cissna

In the middle of an especially international small strip mall that also features a Caribbean restaurant and two Hispanic markets, the Oriental Oasis presents a cornucopia of products from across the Far East. While the greatest representation of goods comes from China, shoppers will also find products from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and elsewhere on the shelves.

Oriental Oasis, on Lockland Avenue, is owned and operated by Ru Ji Ra Srisuthep. “We see customers from as far away as Boone, Elkin, and Mount Airy,” she says. “Some have been in the country for a long time, while others have just arrived.”

Since opening 15 years ago, Srisuthep has brought in a range of culinary offerings that she organizes primarily by country, along with coolers lining the back and one side wall with select vegetables and a variety of frozen, prepackaged entrees and side dishes specifically from Oriental cuisines.

It is trolling the aisles and peering onto the shelves, however, that provides even the amateur cook’s eye with a harvest of goodies to feast upon. Here, you can find just about any kind of noodle imaginable. Canned and bottled goods range from chili sauces, soup broths, and marinades to a range of sardines, squid, mackerel, anchovies, and even fried dace. Curry sauces, flours, candies, cookies, and, of course, a diverse choice of teas are also readily available.

But it is perhaps the more exotic items rarely seen in American stores that entice you to go running for a cookbook. For the uninitiated, you have to wonder how sweet and sour lotus shoot, coconut gel in syrup, young tamarind or cassia leaves, salted papaya, shrimp powder, or seasoned cockles could work into a dinner plan.

If there is a way to make it happen, Oriental Oasis is certainly the place to find what you need.

If You Go: 1347 Lockland Ave. Open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. 336-748-9119.

Dioli’s Italian Market
By Erin Etheridge

Karen and Roger Dioli have a long family history of being in the food business.

Walk into their Italian market on Reynolda Road, and you’ll see their family’s immigration history chronicled on the wall, complete with photos of their ancestors in an Italian sausage factory.

The Diolis moved to Winston-Salem from San Francisco in 1999, where they had been involved in the Bay Area’s restaurant and catering industry. They had long dreamed of opening a market in Winston-Salem where they could bring a taste of their heritage to their new home.

Just recently, their dreams came to fruition - thanks to Karen’s biscotti. “The biscotti are the reason we’re here,” explains Karen, pointing to her crispy confections in the pastry case. Her Italian cookies became popular with family and friends in the area, and Roger suggested that they sell them in the market. And so they do.

Also in the pastry case are various family favorites, including fresh fruit tart with Italian crème, cannoli, tiramisu cheesecake, Swiss almond buns, and even - at their kids’ request - scones (Karen is also part Irish). Savory offerings include an outstanding number of salami and deli meats (including a San Francisco regular, Milanese salami), and also imported Italian cheeses.

If you’re unsure about what’s what in the deli case, Roger is great at explaining the subtleties between salamis. You can always order from the market’s deli sandwich list, as well, to try out some of the unusual meats. The Diolis even pre-make a number of meals, such as vegetarian and meat lasagnas, pasta salads, and chicken dishes that you can purchase, take home, and simply heat up.

Hot soups and sandwiches, ravioli and other pastas made on-site, fresh sauces, rotisserie-cooked meats, and a selection of imported Italian and Sicilian wines are available, in addition to other specialty items. “Our goal is to add more things that the home cook or baker needs,” says Karen. Don’t miss Karen’s delicious, daily-made breads - the light, fluffy ciabbatta is a task to make, but well worth their efforts.

Numerous requests have come in from patrons who have already become regulars. Apparently, “Italians have started coming out of the woodwork” since the market opened. “People remember what they had when they were younger,” Roger nostalgically explains, “that little place on the corner.”

And that’s exactly what Dioli’s is becoming for Winston-Salem.

If You Go: 2898 Reynolda Rd. Open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. 336-724-9900.

La Providencia
By Bill Cissna

Winston-Salem’s oldest grocery store catering to the Hispanic market is also one of the region’s most authentic. While other shops sell Latin-influenced goods, few have as complete of a range as La Providencia, on the corner of Sprague Street and Old Lexington Road.

Owned and operated by Guillermo Mendoza, the store has served customers from across the Triad for 13 years. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, the aisles are full of bags and packages that cannot be found in most supermarkets.

This quickly becomes evident as my translator and I browse. Nearly all of the labels are Spanish or a combination of Spanish and English. Adolfo Briceno, a Yucatan Peninsula native, shows me many products identical to those he would have found on shelves where he grew up. Some look very familiar, as they are south-of-the-border packages of goods we know from Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and others. Some of them Briceno has never seen himself.

But as a young woman behind the register tells us, the primary customer here is originally from Mexico and is seeking foodstuffs more like home than the options North Carolina typically offers.

In addition to delightful cookies, pastries, and other specialties baked fresh daily, the most popular items are tortillas, tamales (here, the optional plantain tamale wraps are measurably more popular than corn alternatives), and “a lot of chiles.” In that category, the legendary habanero is mentioned with awe. “We have a saying in Mexico,” Briceno says, “which roughly translated is ‘very small, but very hot.’ ” I find and take home a bottled, chipotle-based hot sauce.

You can also choose from a wide range of salsas, sauces, beans, and a surprisingly large section of individually bagged spices.

The solely Spanish-speaking environment can be a drawback, but only if you have questions. Given the goodies on display here, it’s certainly worth the effort.

If You Go: 602 E. Sprague St. Open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week. 336-650-1636.