This store is a little bit of an oddball. It was originally a
Met Foodmarket (probably since it opened in 1986), with a service butcher in a separate storefront under the name Meat Town (even though, to my knowledge, the grocery store sold meat). In 2016, owner Thomas Kaller seemed to have gotten an idea to rebrand the entire operation as a
Met Fresh Supermarket, moving the Meat Town sign that used to be over the separate storefront to higher up and centered over the Met Fresh sign. Now, you may notice that, uh, that's not the
Met Fresh logo. A while later, the store transitioned to Fine Fare Fresh, and, uh, that's not the
Fine Fare logo either. But it's gotta match the Met Fresh logo that used to be there, right?
Notice that the marquee sign, which used to say Met Food, now says "Fresh Supermarket Food."
There are some things in life you just can't explain, such as why this store's butcher counter is in a separate room accessible only from the sidewalk and closed off from the store interior.
That all aside, once you get inside the Fine Fare, it's a pretty nice store. And clearly, very high volume as the place was packed at the time of my visit.
The aisles run parallel to the storefront, with checkouts on the left side wall. Because there are multiple residential units above the store, the front wall of the store isn't the right side of the first aisle. There are several indentations for stairway access to the upper floors. Produce lines both sides of an opening between two stairways. I know there's a glare from the light, but if you look carefully you can see that the aisle marker still has the Met Foodmarkets logo.
Meat lines the right side wall of the store, although the service butcher is in the neighboring storefront.
The store is located at an interesting point in Brooklyn, where the predominantly Latino and African American neighborhood of Flatbush meets the predominantly Jewish and Italian neighborhood of Midwood. This Fine Fare seems to cater a little bit to all of those groups, with Caribbean foods alongside Kosher foods and organic items.
Check it out -- if you look carefully at the picture below, you can see some O Organics (ACME/Albertsons) cans on the shelves!
These aisle markers have also been updated to the Fine Fare branding.
Interesting placement for that display of condensed milk.
Dairy and frozen are in the back of the store.
While some of the decor, some cases (such as those dairy cases), and shelving and lighting throughout the store are updated, the store shows its age in places like these freezer cases. Even so, it's still a pretty up-to-date store. The general dark coloring helps, as that's very popular now.
Deli-bakery tucked away in the back corner of the store, with checkouts extending along the wall to the left of that.
Checkouts line the left-side wall of the store, with customer service somewhat awkwardly placed in the middle of the entrance/exit hallway, which doesn't have much else in it because of the stairways I mentioned.
While many things puzzle me about this store, I must say, I like it a lot. I found it very clean, well-stocked, and quirky in a good way. But... our next post is maybe the most exciting of the group. Tomorrow, get ready for... Pathmark!
Fine Fare Supermarkets
1498 Flatbush Ave, Midwood, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed May 2019
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