Let's Eat! Why we're obsessed with Wegmans

FAIRFAX, VA – It's not even noon on a Friday, but Wegmans is teeming. Customers push their carts past an abundance of fresh produce and just-baked bread that's still so warm the loaves are steaming their plastic wrapping.

Displays of crisp vegetables – lettuce, carrots, broccoli, eggplant – take up an entire wall of the store's entrance, immediately giving customers a colorful welcome. It may be the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, but the manager of the perishables section tells me the number of customers shopping right now is typical.

And at an average of 120,000 square feet, Wegmans can afford to draw large crowds. Wegmans stores are three times the size of a typical grocery store. And that means they can fit three times as much stuff, making room for a cheese selection that spans 700 varieties, a kosher deli, enough bulk candy to make anyone squeal and a vast collection of wine.

This is my first visit to the chain that was honored as the country's favorite in a survey by Consumer Reports earlier this year. I'm here to find out where the rave reviews come from. After getting a tour and interviewing shoppers, I've come up with five reasons why Wegmans is considered the best.

• Produce: This is the first section customers see when they walk through the doors, and the most vibrant. Deep pink raspberries, rich strawberries, locally grown tomatoes and an entire wall overflowing with green leafy lettuce and royal purple eggplant. And I've never seen such a large selection of mushrooms. For the high rollers, Wegmans even has truffles in a locked case, at $1,000 a pound (OK, $999.99).

• Cheese: Who doesn't want access to 700 varieties of cheese? Employees are slicing massive rounds of Jarlsberg into more manageable wedges and giving out samples of Wegmans' exclusives, like a French cow's milk cheese wrapped in a brandy-soaked chestnut leaf.

• Wine: Forget Trader Joe's. When it comes to wine, the selection at Wegmans is hard to top in the grocery store wo! rld. Plus you can mix and match craft brews to create your own six-pack. Want a taste first? Go ahead. Wegmans even samples gluten-free beers.

• Pastries: Head to the pastry section to waft in the scent of sugar that permeates the air as cookies, cupcakes and pies are pulled from the ovens. Once you can't hold back any longer, make a to-go box of your favorite treats, like chocolate chip walnut cookies, miniature lemon tarts and sugar cookies dipped in rainbow sprinkles.

• Prepared food: After all that shopping, you've probably worked up an appetite. But you don't have to grab fried chicken and potato wedges from the deli on your rush out the door. Take a breather in the prepared foods section, where you can take your pick between a salad bar, Asian bar, Indian bar, sushi, soup and pizza. Wegmans sent its culinary team to Asia in order to properly learn how to prepare the continent's many cuisines. You can even enjoy a glass of wine at the bar-top and watch chefs prepare spicy tuna rolls and sashimi.