EAST VILLAGE — Westside Market’s fresh produce and prepared foods are on the way to the East Village.
On Oct. 1, the family-run supermarket chain will open its first location on the east side of Manhattan — complete with a wood-burning pizza oven — at the corner of East 12th Street and Third Avenue.
“We’re excited more than anything,” said George Zoitas, 31, who owns the store with his brother-in-law Jimmy Beleses, 40.
Located on the ground floor of the Nathaniel, a newly built 85-unit luxury building, the grocery store will be the first Westside Market to serve pizza freshly made in a wood-burning oven, Zoitas said.
Beleses said the “pizza bar” would sell gourmet slices and pies like quattro formaggio and rabiola, which is made with ricotta, arugula and prosciutto.
Pizza oven aside, the new 18,000-square-foot store will be similar to Westside Market's four other locations in the Upper West Side and Chelsea, Zoitas said.
Fresh produce will be stacked high at the supermarket's entrance, he said, and the store will offer a large selection of prepared hot and cold foods like sandwiches, soups and other items made on site with recipes developed by George Zoitas' mother, Maria Zoitas.
“The biggest difference is that it’s on the east side,” Zoitas said.
The store plans to hire roughly 100 workers and offer Wi-Fi in the store, the owners said.
Westside Market began in 1977, when Zoitas' father, John Zoitas, opened a grocery store on Broadway near 110th Street, according to a New York Times profile of the company.
The East Village supermarket will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.