Still Jenny from the block, but Jenny Lou's now has a café too

All images courtesy of Jenny Lou's

Purchase your cake and eat it too

Shop or café? Why don't we just have both? Well, now you can get you a supermarket that does both, as Jenny Lou's, Beijing's ever-reliable chain for shoppers after imported, hard-to-find goods, has just opened Jenny Lou's Green, an all-in-one grocery store and café out in Liangmaqiao.

For the most part, it's business as usual in the swanky new joint, stocking all the usual foreign foodstuff found in its other branches – such as cheese, deli meats and booze – but Jenny Lou's Green is also home to Caffe Luigi, a dine-in café serving up freshly brewed coffee (16-36RMB), baked goods and made-to-order food. There's no actual menu yet (though plenty of bread and pastries knocking about), but we're told that the 'Green' element refers to promoting a 'green' lifestyle, by serving up healthy food – in this case, healthy takes on pasta, burgers, sandwiches, risotto and more. No word on the sustainability side of the green-ness, but it's a promising start.

Jenny Lou's back in the day.

Celebrating its twenty-fifth birthday this year, Jenny Lou's first started out as a mom-and-pop market stall in Sanlitun – check out the photo above of a bygone SLT – but has now expanded to ten branches across the city, with Green seemingly the next stage in an ambitious plan for world domination. There are also vague plans to eventually follow it up with 'Jenny Lou's Express', which sees them 'getting more involved in the community', and 'Jenny Lou's Lifestyle', which plans to host events such as cooking classes and wine tastings. The shop and the café have integrated – and soon Jenny Lou's will be with you everywhere. Good news for cheese-hunters.

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