The Independent Edition

Citarella Gourmet Market Owner: Joe Gurrera Opened: 1983 (under current ownership) Cooperative: none Location: 2135 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY Photographed: April 2019 Contributor: Laura E. Our look today at the original Citarella, a seafood market that expanded into a gourmet market, is brought to us by contributor Laura E.! Okay, seafood, gourmet market, and... houseplants. Today, Citarella has eight grocery store locations and a few assorted liquor stores. I've actually visited one of their other locations, which we will see on the blog in a while. But although the store has expanded to gourmet groceries, and bakery, and so on, the centerpiece remains the seafood: I love this picture that really shows you how huge the seafood department is! (So much so, of course, that it became the graphic for this store group. Save the best for last, right?) That's about all for the southern half of Manhattan, we're continuing to move north for our next group starting tomorro…

Sunac Fancy Food Owner: Hyun Moon Shin Opened: 2012 Cooperative: none Location: 765 6th Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan, NY Photographed: May 2019 Today's snapshot is a natural food store/oversized bodega with prepared foods, produce, a deli, and basic grocery and dairy items. It's part of a chain that also includes four other Sunac stores, a Sun Sweet Fresh Market, and two Dali Markets which are more in the direction of convenience stores. Check out the interior here! This store is also directly across the street from yesterday's Fairway.

Jubilee Marketplace Owner: Leo Y. Yoo Opened: 1999 Cooperative: none Location: 99 John St, Financial District, Manhattan, NY Photographed: March 2019 Contributor: Will T. Our contributor Will brings us a look at the Jubilee Marketplace on John Street! There's another Jubilee on Riverside Dr, which I've been to and it's really nice. And this one looks pretty beautiful too. Jubilee is an upscale market leaning towards perishables but still a full supermarket. To my knowledge, it's not a member of any cooperative, though I do believe the Riverside location shares decor with some Foodtown stores.

Our next group of stores will take us the next week or so and will have us returning to Manhattan! I should note that we've already seen many stores in Manhattan, and the other thing that people who are familiar with New York City will notice: my "southern Manhattan" is more accurately the southern half, i.e. everything south of Harlem. We'll more specifically be covering stores in the Financial District, Chelsea, Lenox Hill, and the Upper West Side. We start tomorrow right here on The Independent Edition!

Beyar's Market Owner: Tom Beyar Opened: 2003 Cooperative: none Location: 2241 Victory Blvd, Westerleigh, Staten Island, NY Photographed: March 2020 This 3400 square foot store is located just to the west on Victory Blvd from the Met Foods and former Safeway that we've seen in the past few days. It's no bigger than most convenience stores in other parts of the country but manages to pack in produce, beer, groceries, dairy, frozen, a butcher, a deli, and a bakery. You enter and make a sharp right to continue along the front wall of the store, which has produce and beer. Grocery aisles take up the right half of the store, running parallel to the front wall. Dairy runs along the right side of the store, with frozen on the right half of the back wall, followed by deli and bakery. Butcher is on the left wall of the store with checkouts on the front wall. Beyar's sells Essential Everyday storebrand products from Supervalu. The aisles are not for the claustrophobic. Dairy in the b…

Olive Tree Marketplace Owner: David Shehadeh Opened: 2014 Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group Location: 1490 Clove Road, Sunnyside, Staten Island, NY Photographed: March 2020 In 2014, David Shehadeh (of the same family that runs the two Shop Fairs at 4121 and 2720 Church Avenue) opened this Olive Tree Marketplace in a former Mignosi's Supermarket on Staten Island. The Olive Tree banner, originally affiliated with Key Food but now affiliated with Retail Grocers Group's Shop Fair group, has had little success with a location in New Jersey from 2016 to 2018 (more extensive coverage of that location is coming soon) and a location in Brooklyn, which we covered here, from 2018 to, uh, later in 2018.
This location has gone through some tough times too, with shelves periodically emptying and then being restocked. At the time of my visit, some parts were a little sparse, but the store had advertised being "under new management," a trick that they used in Denville before the store f…