Lately I've noticed that real neighborhood markets are coming back — wresting away a little business from the convenience stores and service stations that usurped them in the first place. These new markets have resuscitated shops and grocers that have languished or closed over the years, and they honor them with a knowing wink to the past, all the while promoting the ideals of new urbanism. Think global, shop local, and know your tomato farmer.

Accordingly, there has been a subtle shift in the mission of the neighborhood market. Instead of supplying basic staples its clientele may need, these new stores bring in recherché products the neighbors may not yet know they want. They promote an aspirational lifestyle through food.

JOHN KESSLER ON FOOD AND MORE E-mail Kessler Related: • More on food and drink • Restaurant reviews and search More Kessler Start with basics at three Buford Highway eateries  Salted cod gives kids whiff of new world (and they like it)  Colorful pumpkins have multiple uses  An iffy food approach: There's a joke in here somewhere  In the end, a bit too much wing think going on  Nibble by nibble, great meal at fancy restaurant redefined  A little midcentury classic we'd hate to be without  Grandfather's old-world life remains a mystery

The new-style market I know best is Sawicki's Meat Seafood & More in downtown Decatur. Know, heck. I practically have a time share in the fish case.

Owner Lynne Sawicki, a Star Provisions alumna, covers the basic food groups in her slender storefront space. Her L-shaped deli case holds a careful selection of cured meats, steaks and chops, filleted fish, cheeses, prepared foods and house-made sweets. The produce case holds baskets of vegetables, most of which she grows herself on a plot of land she farms organically. The dry goods range from Italian semolina pastas to smoked Spanish paprika. Alon's baguettes sit in a tempting pile by the cash register.

You can find a lot of the expensive center-of-the-plate items you'll recognize from upscale menus, like diver scallops and USDA prime strip steaks. But regular shoppers learn to look for bargains like the amazing Kobe beef tri-tip steaks (sometimes identified by its French name, "culotte"). Sawicki is the town's resident food expert.

Of course, these days shoppers love to walk into stores, wander around looking at all the pretty food, then buy something prepared. People love the Food Network notion of home cooking, but they mostly want to be fed.

So Sawicki has learned to bump up the variety of prepared salads, roasted meats and casseroles, while doing a brisk business in gourmet sandwiches. I hope her example will encourage more people to cook. A baguette, a few slices of finocchiona salami, a tub of her homemade cream cheese, a tomato from her garden and, well ... sounds like a pretty nice summer dinner, doesn't it?

Over at Cabbagetown Market, co-owners Lisa Hanson and Maria Locke have taken over the historic Little's Grill and Grocery and given it a kind of post-modern makeover. There's a deep sense of history in the happy clutter of this store that recognizes its blue-collar past while acknowledging the tastes of Cabbagetown gentrifiers. Any shelf that stocks shaving cream next to wasabi peas deserves rummaging through.

Okra pickles, Indian spice mixes, California olive oil, Sen Sen, hand-sewn change purses twirling in a glass display tower — it all feels like a joyous examination of our culture, past, present and future. Local organic produce mingles with offbeat treats like fresh ground cherries — each wearing a papery husk. Farm eggs share the dairy case with ripe cheeses and Jersey cow milk. The shelves seem less stocked than curated.

Prepared food? Of course: You can't run a food store these days without feeding folks. Bodacious sandwiches come piled high with cured meats from Austell's Patak's, and there's a White Oak Pasture hamburger slathered with pimento cheese that has the basket presence of a true greasy spoon burger. If that's too foo-foo, then Hanson and Locke still prepare the genuine flat gray patty that former owner Leon Little made into a local favorite. A basket of fried dill pickles is the de rigueur side.

Belly General Store in Poncey-Highland may be the local progenitor of the po-mo neighborhood market. In the sunny corner space that was Fleeman's Pharmacy, Belly has evolved since opening in 2003, with a decor that suggested Drucker's Store in Hooterville and a product selection from the pages of Real Simple. Gone are the Peruvian knits, Poilâne bread imported from Paris and produce counter. After a period when the shelves teemed mostly with candy — gourmet chocolates, fun penny candy and flashy lollipops — a few gourmet items like truffle salt, imported pasta and expensive olive oil have rejoined the mix.

Today, it is safe to call Belly a bakery/food gift shop. Most of the action centers around the front counter, stocked with all kinds of baked goods from olive oil bagels and cupcakes to scones and cookies. Belly also serves greatbig sandwiches and cappuccinos. Customers wheel in their baby carriages, park at a table and indulge in good things to eat and drink.

Belly is a wonderful place to hang out, but it probably no longer qualifies as a market, per se. If the other two can hang on to their original missions, then maybe they can help teach us a lesson: A better lifestyle means buying food from a vendor you trust and cooking it yourself.

• Sawicki's Meat Seafood & More: 250 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur. 404-377-0992.

• Cabbagetown Market: 198 Carroll St., 404-221-9186.

• Belly General Store: 772 N. Highland Ave., 404-872-1003.