Brooklyn Fare
Opened: May 3, 2024
Last Friday, Key Food opened two new stores, a Food Universe in Passaic (here's my post from a while ago when it was slated to be a SuperFresh) and this Brooklyn Fare. It's located in way southern Manhattan, at One Manhattan Square just next to the Manhattan Bridge. This development replaced a Pathmark (can you imagine that, a Manhattan supermarket with a parking lot?!) that closed over ten years ago, and while the Brooklyn Fare is smaller than the Pathmark was at 25,000 square feet, it's Brooklyn Fare's largest location and their most mainstream-feeling, in my opinion. While some of their other locations feel a bit like a gourmet market with some supermarket touches thrown in, this one decidedly feels like a supermarket with some gourmet touches thrown in.
We enter to this little alcove with baked goods and carts, then into the grand aisle. Produce and cheese/packaged deli line the right side, with service bakery, deli, and prepared foods on the left side. In the back half of the store, grocery aisles run front-to-back with meats on the back wall and dairy in the last aisle. The registers are in an unconventional setup in the front left corner, lining the perimeter of a roughly square space rather than in a line.
The store was big, clean, and festive when I visited yesterday, which was their official grand opening.
This is by far the largest mainstream supermarket in the immediate area, although larger Asian supermarkets are just north in Chinatown.
Bakery and coffee in the front.
Lots of beautiful local breads, from Pain D'Avignon and Balthazar...
Deli and prepared foods take up the rest of this peninsula which separates produce from the checkouts.
And what a beautiful produce department it is! Judging by Brooklyn Fare's other locations, I wouldn't be surprised if it looks exactly like this even years from now. They keep their stores up spectacularly.
And it goes to show you, there's no excuse for bad produce in this area!
The first aisle has condiments, organic produce, and cheese/packaged deli items.
Cold cuts and meat begin at the end of the first aisle, then continue onto the back wall.
The store is very simple -- decor isn't all that special, not many fancy finishes, and the like. It looks like they're working hard to position this as a more mainstream supermarket than their other locations, with more of an emphasis on storebrand items (Urban Meadow and Essential Everyday) although higher-end choices still pepper the shelves.
No service seafood department, but an endcap with packaged seafood.
It's not surprising that the shelves looked this good for the grand opening. We'll see if they can keep it up for the long term.
Back to the deli department, looking up towards the front of the store. I wonder if eventually there will be more decor going here.
The deli counter then wraps around the corner to face the grocery aisles...
The selection is pretty extensive, and we can see they don't have more than one or two rows of each product -- which is how they fit as much as they do.
Meat transitions to frozen foods in the back left corner of the store.
Here's a vivid illustration of what I mean about the store being more mainstream -- and, probably intentionally, more of an attempt to replace Pathmark than be its own thing. Check out this nonfoods selection! Can't say I see this in too many other Manhattan supermarkets.
Pet food, too.
Dairy and beer are in the last aisle.
And a look at the front with the registers lining the walls of this front area so there's one line for multiple registers. It works in some of their other locations, so I guess it'll work here too -- it's just definitely unusual.
Opened: May 3, 2024
Owner: Moe Issa
Previous Tenants: none; Pathmark previously on this site
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 227 Cherry St, Two Bridges, Manhattan, NY
Photographed: May 6, 2024
There's also a sushi counter here, along with packaged prepared foods, facing the grocery aisles. See the "checkout" sign straight ahead below?
That's all for this Brooklyn Fare! It was a lot of fun to go check it out. But don't miss today's other stores here!
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