The Independent Edition

Defaria Deli Store Owner: Jim Defaria Opened:  2019 Cooperative:  none Location:  624 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 Our last Long Branch store is here at Defaria Deli Store! This store is quite interesting to me although I don't entirely understand it. Within a block or two there are several Defaria businesses, which all seem to be owned by different family members (I listed Jim Defaria as the owner here, although I don't know that he actually is -- he owns the building supplies store next door according to Manta). I don't entirely understand the idea of owning a building supplies store, a flooring business, a garage, and a grocery store together, but hey, it works I guess. The 9,000 square foot store also has a parking lot, shared with the other assorted businesses, in the back. The deli lines the right wall of the store, although it wasn't really set up at the time of my visit. There are a few grocery aisles with an incredibly random selec...

Exito Freshmarket Owner: Gaurang Patel Opened:  ca. 2014 Cooperative:  Krasdale Location:  176 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ Photographed:  January 2021 We are here in downtown Long Branch for the 7400 square foot Exito Freshmarket! This store, previously a CTown and then an independent store called Grand National Supermarket, is on the eastern end of Broadway, a corridor that's being redeveloped. In fact, the block just to the east was planned for a mixed-use development that included a SuperFresh, but this project has since been canceled. The only other thing I'll mention about the location is that downtown Long Branch does still have some very cool art deco buildings along Broadway  (including the New Jersey Repertory Company's theater, which is a small black-box theater run by very nice people, or so I'm told by a family member -- and frequent blog contributor -- in theater administration in northern NJ). Now let's focus on Exito! The front wall of the store, a...