Upper East Side Fairway Draws Crowds on Opening Day

UPPER EAST SIDE — Stori MacPhee was so excited Wednesday morning, she ran into her building's lobby and shouted to her doorman: "Fairway!"

"I've been waiting," MacPhee said. "Every day I would pass by and ask, 'When are you opening?'"

The line snaked down the block as Upper East Siders waited for their first taste of the Fairway Market at 240 East 86th St., between Second and Third avenues.

For years, MacPhee and her friend, Carol Scott, have been trekking to the Upper West Side's Fairway on Broadway and West 74th Street and to the one in Harlem at West 130th Street, they said.

"We would get it delivered," Scott, 74, said. "There are some things worth paying for."

Scott said Fairway is "theoretically cheaper," but added, "We will see." She and MacPhee were concerned about some peaches on sale for $3.99 a pound — a $1 more than they saw around the corner.

Fairway transformed a former Barnes & Noble store into a dual-level space with three high-speed elevators for shoppers hungry for an array of smoked salmon, more than 600 artisanal cheeses, a kosher bakery, 21-day dry-aged prime steaks and a large selection of organic produce.  

It also brought 400 union jobs to the neighborhood — with 250 people hired through the city's Workforce1 Career Centers, officials said.

The supermarket will soon open its first ever "Fairway to Go" café with coffee, bagels, sandwiches, chopped salad and more next store in the old Circuit City space.

"I actually schlep to the West Side once a week to go to Fairway," said Jill Davis, 55, buying scrod from the fish department. "It kills me to pay [high] prices. There's nowhere on the East Side with the same quality, prices and selection."

Though Cathy Reed, 53, the development director for the 92nd Street Y lives near a Fairway in Stamford, Conn., having one near work helps.

"I'm buying pickles, because they're the best half-sour pickles you will find in the world, and chicken salad," she said. "My 7-year-old twins love it."

She predicted: "This is going to be a big spot to get lunch." She was also pleased that Fairway was already getting involved in the community and was going to participate in 92Y's annual street festival in September.

When Barnes & Noble left, state Assmblyman Micah Kellner's constituents began calling his home, writing him letters and making posters calling for a supermarket. One woman brought him 300 signatures calling for a Fairway.

"They wanted a high-end grocery store, and specifically they wanted Fairway," Kellner said. "'Please don't bring in Forever 21. We don't need a department store,' they said."

He was relieved the store finally opened: he and his fiancée were planning a barbecue Wednesday night, and they, too, didn't want to have to shop on the West Side.

"I'm a vegetarian, but if you go downstairs and look at the meat section, it kind of makes me want to give up vegetarianism," he said.

Fairway CEO Howie Glickberg's grandfather's small fruit and veggie stand from 1933 eventually grew into the Upper West Side store. Glickberg came on board in 1974 and partnered in 2007 with Sterling Investment Partners, a private equity firm based in Westport, Conn, which now has a controlling interest in the company.

The Upper East Side opening marks the eighth Fairway in the tri-state area. The company is set to open in Douglaston, Queens, by Nov. 1 and several more are planned for 2012.

Glickberg emphasized that Fairway was still a family business, now in its fourth generation with his son, Dan, who joined full-time in 2005.

"I'm very proud of what my family has done," Glickberg said at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Glickberg had lived at 234 East 83rd St. after college and recalled how the neighborhood had its butcher, baker, fishmonger and little produce shops. He said that Fairway recreated those little shops and that personal attention in one big store.

"My people in the store, they're the ones who interact with the public and make this an engaging experience," he said. "All of my department heads could have owned their own stores 30 years ago."

Kellner commended the store for heeding Upper East Siders' concerns about truck traffic, noise and sidwalk congestion. The store, for instance, is limiting the use of pallets on the sidewalks by having carts that will be stocked in Harlem that can be directly loaded into the store and by using a juicer for rotting produce so smelly fruits and veggies won't have to be left on the street. The store also is not selling produce on the sidewalk as it does on the Upper West Side where residents complained about congestion.

Fairway Market, 240 East 86th Street, is open daily from 7 a.m. until midnight.