Fairfield Families

Opening of Fairway Market

I was invited to visit the new Fairway Market in Stamford recently but unfortunately was unable to attend. Sissy Biggers wrote this guest post to provide readers an inside look at the new store. Sounds like it would be wroth the trip! Thanks, Sissy.

When the doors finally opened at the new, flagship Fairway Market in Stamford last Wednesday, it was reminiscent of the old Supermarket Sweep on TV.  The grocery cart brigade, who’d lined up for hours,  by-passed New York’s famous food family, Howie and son, Danny Glickberg –and other local glitterati–to roll right into the Fairway experience.  As the shoppers entered the over 85,000 square feet of aisles, they were greeted by the stores’ very heart and soul, the floor to ceiling displays of fruits and vegetables.  Fairway Market  has never been more exciting.

Chairman of Fairway and CEO of Sterling Investment Partners, the majority equity partner in Fairway, and Greenwich resident, Charles Santoro, wielding the ceremonial (giant!) scissors  to cut the ribbon expressed his own pride and great pleasure in bringing Fairway to Fairfield County.

“So many people are familiar with Fairway from working or living in Manhattan and have expressed their delight that we’ve made it to the area,” he said. “Now, Fairfield County has a world class food retailer that it deserves.”

Exactly! Ever since I learned Fairway Market was going to materialize on Canal Street, right off Exit 7 in Stamford, I have been touting its legendary status to eager foodies all over Fairfield County. Any of those busy moms who’d spent time near the Upper West Side in their prior lives knew just what I was talking about and the uninitiated couldn’t wait to learn more.  It was easy to explain, because Fairway Market is like no other store:  one-stop shopping for every food on your grocery list.  A world-class food expert runs each department:  a cheese monger, master butcher and all their specialists purvey the finest  meat, cheese, fish, dairy, produce, fresh roasted coffee, international, organic, kosher, fresh-baked and prepared foods.  By the end of my first visit I was on a first name basis with them all!

Tony, the store’s fish monger for more than a decade, showed off the giant swordfish pulled from the nearby Atlantic the day before and the fresh,  large Maine lobsters as typical examples of the care and quality and value in every department.  At $6.99 a pound (a price Tony boasts you won’t find anywhere else), you can pick out a pair of live kickers on the way in and he’ll have them steamed and bagged for you—at no extra cost—when you’re ready to check out.

Of course, I already knew that  Fairway’s famous for unsurpassed variety, quality and freshness at surprisingly low everyday prices!   As the first day’s discerning shoppers navigated the spacious aisles I over-heard wonderful comments, universally impressed by the store’s vastness and its value!  For some, it was a first visit and the shock and awe at the initial glimpse of the store’s pristine cheese department was palpable.  It’s no surprise!  The  culture of this department is legendary thanks to cheese expert Steve Jenkins who oversees the more than 600 artisanal offerings at all seven Fairways in the tri-state.

The bakery, run by Omar, an intense hands on manager,  has an astonishing array of mouth-watering goods, including kosher items. In addition to the high quality baguettes and their famous bagels, they carry other crunchy in-demand brands like Tom Cat Bakery. 

The butchers provide tremendous help and options behind their gorgeous display of fresh cut meats. (The head butcher steered me towards the top sirloin on sale). There’s a large selection of kosher meats with a full-time kosher butcher in the store.  I’ve never seen so much beautiful, high quality chicken, turkey and, one of my hard to find favorite, fresh rabbit!

Master coffee roasters preside over the peppiest and most aromatic department in the store.  The smell of roasting green coffee beans is a rare experience—as is the special Fairway blend of whole beans at $4.99 per pound!!!

A few other favorites, and what underscores Fairway as the destination for a full shopping experience, are the scores of fine olive and other oils imported by Fairway directly from Italy.  Ian, one of the olive mavens in the Fairway family gave me a great tour of the towering aisles and helped me select a quality grape seed oil and a bottle of hard to find verjus for deglazing—two must haves for this foodie!  I helped myself to some of the 50 kinds of freshly bathed and marinated olives, and stocked my pantry with a vast selection of “serious tuna” in a stand-alone display of canned, Italian tuna and anchovies.

The Fairway experience is all you need on your next big shop.  The aisles are filled with more than 45,000 traditional and 90,000 specialty and organic groceries, as well as a kosher section and an organic and natural health and beauty department.  In the dairy shoppers find one of the biggest selections of yogurts, milks and imported butters.  In the back of the store, facing one of the parks in Harbor Point, is a glass enclosed 80 seat café where shoppers can select sandwiches, pizza, sushi, salads, soups to enjoy in a relaxing and picturesque setting.

But wait, there’s more!  The Fairway Wine & Spirits Store opens in December!  Thanks Fairway!

November 13, 2010 at 12:10 pm 1 comment