What do you get when you cross a grocery store, an amusement park, and the United Nations? Jungle Jim's, a soon-to-be four-acre international food emporium outside Cincinnati, Ohio. NPR's Susan Stone braved the jungle to send an audio postcard.
Fiberglass giraffes and monkeys protect the parking lot; a talking Robin Hood beckons shoppers to British delicacies, and a lion dressed like Elvis serenades the checkout line. And then there's Jungle Jim -- a.k.a. Jim Bonaminio -- dressed in a blue wizard's outfit.
Bonaminio started in the food business 30 years ago, selling tomatoes from the back of a truck. Then came the fruit stand, then a farmer's market, then a grocery store. Now, it's a tourist attraction.
There are plans for a culinary institute, restaurants and a hotel, all to be built next to the market. And a monorail will carry people between the attractions. By the time he's finished, Bonaminio says, he'll have created an "amusement park for food lovers."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
