Special Report: Heavenly Foodmarket - Hudson Yards, Manhattan, NY

Heavenly Foodmarket
Opened: mid-October 2024

Owner: unknown

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: Krasdale Foods

Location: 311 11th Ave, Hudson Yards/West Chelsea, Manhattan, NY

Photographed: October 23, 2024

Amazon Fresh promises an easier, higher-tech shopping experience, but this store goes a bit further: shopping here is no less than Heavenly. Heavenly appears to be a small chain of delis and convenience stores across New York City, but they've opened what appears to be their first supermarket near Hudson Yards in far western Chelsea.

What draws most people to this location is probably the High Line, a converted elevated train line that's now a walking path. It's from a High Line bridge that I took the above picture, and don't worry, when I was in this neighborhood, I did walk the whole High Line. But as cool as it would be, this isn't a rail-trail blog, this is a supermarket blog. So let's tour the new Heavenly Foodmarket at 11th Avenue and 30th Street!

The store appears to be independent but supplied by Krasdale Foods, as I saw a handful of Krasdale products inside -- and a Krasdale truck delivering. It's a high-end, small supermarket that pays homage to Heavenly's corner-deli roots but expands well beyond that.

We enter on the left side with produce in an alcove on the left side. In the first aisle, packaged specialty refrigerated foods -- vegan items, prepared foods, olives, and the like -- line the left side, with a large deli and prepared foods counter on the right side. I can't tell whether there's an in-store bakery here, but there's definitely a large bakery department, with a service counter at the back of the deli island and lots of fresh bread, rolls, and pastries on the back of the island. Packaged meats and cheeses are on the back wall (there's no service butcher counter, but meat does seem to be cut in-store), with frozen and dairy on the right side. Single-serve beverages and a seating area on the front wall, along with some registers.

The design of the store is absolutely spectacular, with big, bold decor accented by great lighting. The produce department isn't 100% organic, but the majority is organic.

Moving into the first aisle, we see the expansive deli counter and the packaged items on the left, along with some self-service food bars.

This store has a bit of a built-in market because it's to the far west in Chelsea, where there are lots of new residential buildings but relatively few amenities for the residents of them. There's a Whole Foods a block over and a block up within Hudson Yards, and an Ideal Marketplace -- a very no-nonsense, mainstream supermarket -- two blocks east and two down.

Here's a look at the bakery counter and the meat department in the back of the first aisle, which functions as the grand aisle.

The bakery cases also have plenty of choose-your-own rolls, bagels, pastries, and so on. I would assume these aren't baked in-store, but I don't know.

And meat on the back wall.

The rest of the back wall is taken up by a pretty large cheese case.

And in the grocery aisles, we can tell it's definitely a full supermarket, not just a large bodega.

I spotted Full Circle (Topco) and Field Day (UNFI) storebrand items alongside a very limited number of Krasdale things on these shelves.

Dairy and frozen in the last aisle. By the way, this store opened about three weeks ago, with a small caveat -- according to Google reviews, it actually opened for one day back in June and then abruptly closed. It's unclear exactly why that was; maybe there was some last-minute issue with permits or inspections.

Beverages over on the front wall...

...and the registers next to that, with some set up bodega-style on a counter along the wall (the deli is on the other side of the "thank you for shopping" wall) and some set up supermarket-style in front of that.

So is this a Heavenly experience? I was quite pleased, but can you really compare anything to heaven? Well, I suppose that's just up to the shopper to decide. While you're pondering, check out this weekend's other posts!

• Amazon Fresh's new store in Lodi, NJ
• A new gourmet market near Hudson Yards in Manhattan (this post)
• A CVS-turned-supermarket right on the NJ/NY border

Plus a preview of what we'll see tomorrow...

• Ongoing work at two different Food Bazaars
• Renovations finished at the ACME in Saddle Brook and the ShopRite in Rochelle Park
• The end appears to be near for South Orange's gourmet market