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Fairway to Open Upper East Side Market on July 20

By Amy Zimmer | July 6, 2011 10:57am

By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo News Editor

MANHATTAN — Upper East Siders will no longer have to trek across Central Park to Upper West Side or up to Harlem for their fill of the Fairway Market's famous bounty of fresh produce, fish, coffee and more.

Come July 20, the famed supermarket is opening its third Manhattan location on East 86th Street between Second and Third avenues. It's the first new Fairway to grace the borough in 16 years.

The 25,000 square foot space at 240 East 86th St., once home to a Circuit City and Barnes & Noble, will soon be filled with more than 600 artisanal cheeses, bread made from scratch, custom-cut meats from its butcher shop and its exclusive imported barrel olive oils, according to the shop's website.

"A true one-stop shop from the everyday to the fancy, the Upper East Side has never seen anything like this, and it's about time we give it to you," the company's site said.

The market, of course, wanted to do something different for Upper East Siders, so it's adding its first "Fairway to Go" section where hungry shoppers on the run will be about to grab sandwiches, pastries and coffee.

Residents have been eagerly awaiting the store's opening, which had been projected for last month.

"I'm starting to see subway ads for the new UES Fairway," Yosh25 tweeted on Wednesday. "Yay for new grocery options! Rumor is, it's going to be the BEST one so far!"

But some locals from the East 86th Street Merchants and Residents Association had expressed concerns about truck traffic and sidewalk congestion around the popular market. They pledged to be watchdogs, making sure the store adhered to rules of loading zones and hours.

Residents near the Upper West Side store had long been complaining about street overcrowding, but the store built a new warehouse in Harlem to reduce the number of truck trips to the shop.