TOUR: Bravo Supermarkets - New Brunswick, NJ

Bravo Supermarkets

Owner: Juan Marte

Opened: 2008 under current ownership

Previous Tenants: Food Fair > Foodtown > CTown

Cooperative: Krasdale

Location: 275 George St, New Brunswick, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

Our final New Brunswick store tour is here at the 8600 square foot Bravo in downtown New Brunswick! Not a huge store, but actually the largest store in downtown New Brunswick since SuperFresh closed in 2019. It started out as a wonderfully midcentury modern Food Fair and later became a Foodtown owned by the Davidsons. They closed the Foodtown in the 80s or early 90s, I believe, and intended to convert the store to a liquor store (notice that a tiny Davidson's Liquors remains next door). The city of New Brunswick instead subsidized the proposed CTown to replace the Foodtown and assisted the owners in opening, leading the Davidsons to sue, arguing that the use of the space as a grocery store threatened their existing business at their other Foodtown across town. The suit was decided in the CTown owners' and the city's favor, given that the stores are a mile and a half apart -- in an urban neighborhood where many residents don't have cars, that's more than enough for two grocery stores to coexist.

The switch to Bravo brought an exterior and interior renovation, much-needed, according to a frequent shopper at the CTown long ago. (Note that the CTown changed ownership in 2008 but didn't actually switch over to Bravo until 2011.) It now seems that the property is up for sale, based on nothing other than the AVAILABLE sign posted here on this corner.

The interior is looking great although it's nearly 10 years old at this point. Produce lines the grand aisle with a service butcher in the back. Meat is on the back wall, with dairy and frozen in the last aisle and a deli in the front right corner. We can tell the bones of the store are very old, but it's been fixed up very nicely by its current owners.

Looking back up towards the entrance on the front wall. The side of the store in the first picture is actually the right side, with the dairy/frozen department being on the other side of that wall.

Butcher in the back corner of the store. My father would occasionally visit this store in its early days as a CTown, and was thoroughly impressed when I showed him these pictures. By the way, there's a second floor in this part of the store, necessitating the low ceiling.

Meats on the back wall. Another great decor package brought to us by our friends at DY Design!

Looking up towards the front wall of the store in the first grocery aisle.

Here's the customer service counter in the front of the first aisle. Notice that we can actually place the age of the decor by observing that the Bravo logo is seamlessly incorporated into the signage, meaning it can't be older than 2011.

International aisle right down the middle of the store.

The floors are beautiful and clean -- although I do think the social-distancing X's are a little overkill.

Dairy and frozen in the last aisle. Take a second to notice the air vents on the ceiling, probably original to Food Fair. Also notice that the ceiling is actually a solid piece, there's no drop ceiling here.

Deli/bakery in the front corner. This area is very cramped, as you can probably tell.

More evidence that the remodel coincided with the Bravo rebranding -- notice how the checkout lane markers were clearly designed to include the Bravo logo and that wasn't placed over the CTown logo at some later point. You can also see a staircase to the second floor offices here.

And that wraps up our Greater New Brunswick group -- that is, of course, if you've seen today's other post of a small store just across the street. Come back tomorrow to see what's next!