TOUR: Livoti's Old World Market - Middletown, NJ

Livoti's Old World Market
Owner: John Livoti

Opened: 2017

Cooperative: none

Location: 1151 NJ-35, Middletown, NJ

Photographed: January 2021

It's time for our second of the three Livoti's! We saw the oldest location, Aberdeen, a few days back and we'll see Englishtown when we circle back through the central part of the state. At just over 14,000 square feet, this one is slightly smaller than Aberdeen but right in the same space range. The newly-renovated Middletown Marketplace was previously anchored by a 47,000 square foot Pathmark, which has been subdivided into a Bed Bath & Beyond and a TJ Maxx.

Inside, the store looks a lot like Aberdeen, although it's a bit more modern with a slightly different decor package. Produce takes up about 1/3 of the store, with nonfoods and some general grocery in the shelving under the produce bins.

We have deli and seafood on the back wall, with butcher in the back left corner. A cheese and pizza island is at the back of the produce department, with dairy/frozen on the far left side of the store and bakery in the front left corner.

Gorgeous cheese island towards the back with pizza next to it...

It's a very cool design feature to have a pizza oven in the middle of the sales floor. There's also a seating bar with exhibition cooking -- of course, temporarily suspended for the coronavirus.

The main attraction is definitely the deli, though, which runs along most of the back wall.

Unlike Aberdeen, the deli here also includes a served hot food bar.

The store also features quite a few deluxe touches, like an olive oil and vinegar bar! It seems that they are attempting to set themselves apart from the also-fantastic nearby ShopRites, and doing so successfully at least based on the crowds I observed in their three stores.

Mercato del Pesce on the back wall. Any readers here speak Italian? I don't, despite being partially Italian... but I am rather fluent in Italian cooking and (mostly) eating.

Moving into the grocery aisles, we find a small but complete collection of basic grocery items alongside specialty gourmet and Italian products.

Dairy and frozen here in the last aisle. By the way, and I believe I mentioned this in Aberdeen, Livoti's uses very few storebrand products but those that are on the shelves are Hy-Top from Bozzutto's in Cheshire, CT.

The bakery here in Middletown feels a bit smaller than Aberdeen's, but still an extensive selection. Fresh breads are on the side wall here, with sweets on the front wall. I notice that several of the Italian stores (such as Uncle Giuseppe's) separate the sweet and savory bakery counters, a really nice touch in my opinion.

And we are wrapping up this gorgeous store with a look at the front end...

Before we head out of Middletown, we have two final stores tomorrow -- one quick snapshot on The Market Report, and a local landmark over on Grocery Archaeology! Those will both be coming up tomorrow before we move on.