Grocery
Pete's Fruits & Vegetables
5606 East Cedar Avenue, Opens at 7am
Most of our groceries now arrive to our homes from online shopping, home delivery, or trips to large chain stores. But hidden in the neighborhoods of Denver are places that provide more than just food for the people. They are the intersections of creation and culture. They are the grocery, bodega, deli, or market.
Pete’s Fruits & Vegetables is at the intersection of Holly and Cedar in the Hilltop neighborhood, next door is Pete’s Meat Market. Pete’s is a place that reflects a lifetime of work. Pete Moutzouris came to the United States from southern Greece in 1972. His has been the place for neighbors to buy fresh produce, meat, cheese, and flowers for over 40 years. The store is hidden in the summer by racks of flowers to bring beauty to neighborhood gardens.
Pete’s serves as a reminder, and at times it feels like a relic, of how we buy food. Produce is bagged by hand, meat is handed over the counter, and olives are scooped from large bins. There is no scanner or self-checkout. Instead, there is Pete’s wife with a calculator and a convincing invitation to buy a piece of baklava sitting on the counter.
The grocery, market, or deli is the place of life where food is provided locally and personally. Eugene Peterson described his father’s occupation at the local butcher, “We were sacrificing animals all the time, so I thought of my dad as a priest. He acted like a priest and lived like one. He knew everyone’s name.” The grocery is a sacred place.
