"Fairway" included in listing ?

I do 95% of my shopping at Fairway between 74th & 75th. It's almost always a mad house, but prices and selection are good. There's a bigger one in the 100's somewhere. Never been to it, but it's supposed to be nice. Fairway delivers. I think its free. We're within a couple of blocks so never used delivery service. I shop a couple of times a week (i'm sure this will change as the kids multiply).

Sometimes we go to the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle, mostly for their larger variety of baby food ;). It's nice. Also very crowded.

Rumors that there will soon be a Trader Joes at Broadway and 72nd.

Find the apartment that works for you. Groceries will work themselves out. Many do Fresh Direct delivery.

I live in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where the Fairway made a huge difference in quality of life. Most people in the neighborhood had to shop at the old FineFare or Pathmark, as Fresh Direct didn't deliver here. For people who cook three meals a day at home (I have two young kids), a great supermarket can be a major factor in choosing where to live.

When I was younger, though, I cared more about proximity to bars/nightlife/cheap pizza.

uwsmom: The other Fairway is on 125th street under the west side highway. It is a giant warehouse with a freezer/refrigerator section the size of a large supermarket. You can drive there they have a free parking lot(just like the burbs). Great selection and the best prices in the city per a survey that I think the Times did.

For people who like to cook and have quality food(moi) easy access to a market like fairway or wholefoods is a big plus. Although it was never a deal breaker I have had clients love the idea they could walk to wholefoods.

As someone who cooks in Manhattan and has had a house in the suburbs, I can say that the selection of grocery stores in Manhattan is deplorable. We currently live in the West 50s, and we have a choice of the Gristede's on Eighth and the Associated on 57th (both markets where we often have to return meat); Stiles on 52nd, which doesn't sell meat; the Associated on Ninth, which has pretty good quality but somewhat limited selection, Western Beef on 61st, which has great meat and prices but lousy produce; Westerly organic, which has good meat but can be on-and-off on grains; and Whole Foods Columbus Circle, where they don't have some basic items and prices (which they often bait-and-switch) are sky high.

We are not near a Trader's, but we go to the one of 14th Street because they have great prepared food at decent prices, but again, they run out of things and their produce section is alarmingly small.

To get a grocery list of, say, salmon and polenta and Fresca and mint often requires going to three different stores. To shop for a holiday like Passover, where you might want something a little special like having a store grind fish for you, practically requires taking the day off. (It took me four grocery stores -- Whole Foods/Associated/Kashkaval (our local cheese shop) and Gristede's -- to find a wheel of brie to bake for New Year's Eve.)

If you're used to going to any decent suburban grocery store (we had a Waldbaum's on Long Island), dealing with Manhattan grocery stores will make you homicidal in a hurry.

Fairway, and its sister store Fairway uptown, as jam-packed as they are, are really the best grocery stores in the city -- if you cook, and can live near them, I would.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

walking with a few bags of groceries is a good workout ;)

Ali I do disagree with you a bit here, I find the big supermarkets in the burbs lacking many of the foods I like to buy. I can't imagine you can't find everything you could possibly need at wholefoods or fairway(timing is the key to less crowds).Prices at WF can be absolutely ridiculous I agree 100% and since we have a car I shop at fairway/Harlem once a week. Yes our basic supermarkets are pretty lame but for a foodie the choices are mind blowing!

Very early or very late are less crowded at fairway. We avoid Sat & Sun if we can.

Keith, things I have not found at the Columbus Circle Whole Foods in the past month:

Fresca (ok, so I should know soda is not going to be there)
Raspberries
Prepackaged polenta
A wheel of brie

Maybe I am living in the '80s a little bit, but I don't consider any of these specialty foods. They're all stuff I knew would be at the Waldbaum's at the beach.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

^^ sorry to go off on such a rant, but the point is, if you're willing to buy whatever is in the store, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are great. If you're shopping for ingredients for a specific recipe or for set weekly needs, they're tremendously hard to deal with because their stock fluctuates from week to week.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

I don't know Waldbaums v. Wholefoods? WF may not have that Fresca but the rest is pretty darn good...

Ali I agree it can be be frustrating especially when that one thing you need is not there!

You don't realize how important having a good grocery store nearby is until you don't. A few grocery stores have closed in my hood, and if Fresh Direct didn't deliver here, I would definitely consider moving (I rent). I love love love FD though.

front_porch: "We currently live in the West 50s, and we have a choice of the Gristede's on Eighth and the Associated on 57th (both markets where we often have to return meat)"

Ali--you return meat????? often????? I'm not sure if that speaks more negatively about the supermarkets or about you.

Slope11217--it's very COMMON to return meat, fish or chicken that ARE NOT GOOD, or past their prime. What is your problem? Obviously you don't cook that much, or you cannot discern between good and bad meats. Most supermarkets will take the bad meat back immediately since they know they're at fault--it's common for crappy markets to change the dates on meat/poultry labels to keep them out longer. I've had quite a few bad chicken experiences, and the markets have been more than happy to take the smelly, inedible poultry back.

yes to trader joe's @ 72 st - confirmed

Slope, I am not a cleanliness freak; I can barely remember to turn the cutting board over from chicken to vegetables.

But if I buy protein for dinner, and it smells bad the minute I open it -- it's going back. It happens constantly in New York, and I think it speaks to the stores' inability to keep things refrigerated along the food-handling chain. Happened to me just last week with turkey sausage from Gristede's.

I had to go to Westerly to get a different, non-spoiled turkey sausage, and then dinner was half an hour late. What do people with kids do, since they can't run out every ten minutes?

Count yourself lucky that you live near Staubitz.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/10/trader_joes_invades_the_land_o.html

returning meat/poultry is very common in new york...

Just returned from Trader Joe's. Place is a zoo, stuff always sold out. BUT has awesome meat, pull dates are stunning (and if you don't go on SuperBowl Sunday at 1:30 like I did the selection is significantly better). BTW, if you have things delivered you can choose a later time slot so you don't have to get home. You can go and then have brunch in the Village.

Anyone remember the days of Key Foods, Pioneer, and Red Apple? As bad as it is now, it used to be much worse.

Fairway Rules!
end of story.

Yes to the bad meats! Stinky pork tenderloin from Fairway about a month ago.

Pioneer is kind of scary, but it suffices for basics =)

I've lived in NYC for 15 years and I still can't believe how deplorable the majority of grocery stores are here. I think native NYers simply don't know that they are getting shafted with dirty stores, rotten food, and poor selection. I'm with Ali - I get on the subway to buy meat from Fairway, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe's.

I did a dance of joy when Whole Foods came to the city and I don't understand people who complain about the prices. The WF house brand and their conventional produce beat the prices at my local Associated or Gristede's 90% of the time. Yeah, organic chocolate bars blessed by virgins cost 10 bucks, but the basics are competitive.

I definitely wouldn't walk away from the perfect apartment that didn't have a good grocery store nearby, but if I were torn between one place close to WF or Trader Joe's and one place that wasn't - the apt with better grocery access would win.

Pioneer - yuck. Proud to say I have never stepped in there in 11 years of living on UWS. Fairway rules but their meats are unreliable. They totally repackage and redate. Have had more than my share of bad chicken from there - I buy all meats & fish from Citarella.

LOL...honestly, for nonperishable items Pioneer is fine. Sometimes, I just don't feel like dealing w/ the Fairway crowd for a jar of peanut butter!

lookingforhome, I totally agree about WholeFoods. Their own brands and packaged items are often a very good deal, and their meat, fish and produce is not a bad value. What's amazing to me, however, is that many things like top-branded ice cream will be 20% less here than Gristede's. The Union Square Whole Foods has, to me, the best crowd/supply quality. Chelsea is lovely, but doesn't carry many of the things that Union Square does. Anyone who pays Associated's prices for fruit should be left alone in a dark room for some quiet introspection. The quality is far better at my local produce cart, and Associated's produce prices are INSANE.

I haven't lived on the UWS for years. I didn't realize Pioneer was still extant. Downtown we have MetFoods, which for some reason people always want to keep alive.

It's a matter of principle. I usually pop in Fway after 9pm - with 3 kids, I know never to run low on peanut butter. Always have a full jar in reserve.

Hey folks, what about West Side Supermarket? It feels like a sanctuary when I want to avoid the insanity of Fairway. A bit on the pricey side, though.

Trader Joes is great if you time your trip to show up just as they open on weekend mornings. Fewer crowds and they haven't run out of stuff yet.

Go shopping at Fairway. Then walk around Whole Paycheck or Gris-Feces.
No contest. And the 125th location is great. I hope the rumors are true about Trader Joes!

The thing that annoys me about WF is the way they mark their produce. They will put a sign up that grapes are "$1.99/lb" and then sell you a three-pound bundle, so you go to the cash register and "go, oh wow, I didn't know I was buying six bucks worth of grapes!" -- at Fairway, they would just mark the grapes $6.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

The Harlem Fairway is at 132nd St. & 12th Ave.

"Gris-Feces" is a good name. For WF, I prefer "Food Hole -- A Money Pit"

And re: Trader Joe's -- in all the rest of the nation, TJ's is not a destination, but rather a local shop in a "C" stripmall. Hopefully, when they open a few more here, the mob-scene will calm down.

Additionally, there's NYS legislation proposed/pending to allow grocery stores to sell wine (they can already sell beer, of course), which will take the one-store-per-owner restriction away from TJs & Food Whole -- A Money Pit so that all of their stores in NYS can sell wine and beer. I think it'll pass, on the assumption that big supermarket chains can lobby better than a large number of one-store-per-owner moms-and-pops liquor shops.

OnTheMove: West Side Market is a topic of debate in our household. I deplore it for high prices on overripe, inferior produce and cheeses, day-old bread and dusty dry goods. My hardworking spouse loves it as the anti-Fairway: an easy place to quickly fill my requisitions on the way home. There's a place for both, I guess.

If you have a car or access to one, driving to the Fairway in Red Hook is worth it. As much as I love the 74/Broadway location, the Red Hook store is heaven-sent. Less frantic, several times larger (and therefore even better selection).

bjw, is it better then the Harlem location?

the above postings are strong examples of why new york will always survive...going to red hook brooklyn for food, taking the subway or bus to shop is amazing..Only New Yorkers would do all that and not complain..congrats

aboutready, I've only been to the Harlem location once, and not at all since I've gone to the Red Hook location, so I'm not really fresh on the details. I will say that the Red Hook store is the first supermarket I've ever been to where I was literally exhausted by all the selection and completely skipped a few aisles. I'd definitely recommend you check it out - they have a lot of parking, which really helps.

If you have a car and are a foodie I would definitely recommend going up to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

ali r.

You don't have to be a "foodie" to love Fairway. You just have to be someone who wants a variety of fresh food with normal prices. And most other options in Manhattan just don't cut it. And that's why Fairway is packed.

"West Side Market ...My hardworking spouse loves it as the anti-Fairway"

Are you married to my husband? Mine is the same way.

And re: Pioneer - my husband likes to buy beer there. Apparently they have a pretty good selection.

Most guys hate Fairway. My husband refuses to step inside or even walk on that side of the street.

Every grocery store has its function, and where I shop depends entirely on the situation. One thing about living in NYC is that you can't just shop in one place. Here’s how I do it:

Fairway, #1 choice but you have to be in the mood. Stock up on produce and meats while testing your patience while little old ladies drive their oversized carriage into your shins. Throw manners out the door but get great food, I use the “F” word more in this store than I do in a month. Food and prices are just too good to pass up.

Fresh Direct – weekly staples / basics, canned goods, milk, cereal, non risk produce, etc. Pay a little more, but don’t have to carry home the heavy stuff.

Food Emporium – fill in stop for stuff needed when not in the mood for Fairway. Their meats and produce are tragic, but they have recently renovated and seem to be trying a bit harder. This is the last place I go before succumbing to the Bodega

Bodega – the “oh shit I forgot X” store. I buy limes, cheese, random vegetables, milk, etc. Need to take a second mortgage to buy anything, but can’t beat the convenience and my wife is happy when I show up with fresh flowers

Street vendors – the street vendors in the UWS are good for fruit / vegetables you want to eat that day and the prices are really great. Avocado bargain this weekend for a $1 each which contributed to a killer Guacamole for the super bowl

Pioneer - Best prices in the city for beer. My guess is every other category loses money in this store, but there is beer in every aisle

Target (Jersey) – all toiletries, cat food/litter, cleaning products, paper goods, etc

I also avoid the Fairway side of the street unless I plan to go in. It's just too much.

My advice - strap a baby on your belly. People are much nicer!!!

JuiceMan - agree, sometimes I even find myself in the local Associated, where the check-out people are as rude as I've ever encountered, but they have Amy's Mac & Cheese and our Gristedes (also nasty store, super nice people) doesn't.

Some of the street vendors have produce that is much better than just eat it today. There are a few that are superb (the one near Sloan Kettering is amazing). Some are really sub-par, but try to check out any that you are interested in early in the morning. The best ones do a huge amount of business, and although they restock during the day, the really good vendors have a large volume up on the carts early to meet demand.

Pretty good Juiceman. I'd have to agree. But I dropped Fresh Direct since I moved to the UWS and I substitute Target for Costco. I used to survive on Fresh Direct in Yorkville.

"Pioneer - Best prices in the city for beer."

Maybe a couple of years ago, but I think they are coasting on reputation now. The only bargains there these days seem to be Eastern European brands with labels that look like Gulag tatoos. I'm married to a Yuengling drinker, and the best price in the neighborhood seems to be at - sigh - Fairway: $9.99 for a 12-pack of either Black & Tan or Premium Beer.

FD - I used this once or twice, but the delivery guys look like ex-cons. Don't want them knowing my setup.

FE - They have things like useful things like paper cups & plates & straws & baby swim diapers that I can't get at Fairway

WF - quality of chicken is better than Fway and I love their humongous large plastic containers of org. milk, unavailable at Fway

FW - I love to hate you, my dear Fairway - have been to all 3 locations, but can't beat UWS for stock on some weirder gourmet items & organic items

Pi - never been inside

WS - been there a few times, usually when totally desperate for something and remembered it last minute as we walk home from Grom

Zabars - love their fresh pastas, cheeses, salmon, bagels (beats H&H IMO), spreads, dips, you name it and like to browse upstairs (they have 10% once or twice a year on everything upstairs)

Cit - go there for all my meats, chicken, homemade sausage, fish if possible, fresh pastas are good too. Hate their plastic bags as can't be easily reused as garbage bas

Don't forget, the little greenmarket at 80th & Columbus - get all my apples there, they added eggs and more vegs recently, so get those there as well. Everyone, shop local.

Hmm- I think it's the variety of beer at Pioneer that keeps him going back. He comes home very excited about a new kind and I pretend to care.

The knock on Fairway is the crowd and the lines... but honestly, the lines go pretty fast.

"I'm married to a Yuengling drinker"

There are many funny things about that statement

"He comes home very excited about a new kind and I pretend to care."

We are simple creatures aren't we?

"FD - I used this once or twice, but the delivery guys look like ex-cons. Don't want them knowing my setup." - LOL. I try to limit the number of strangers that come to my home as well and shop a couple of times a week.

"walk home from Grom" - Uggh, we hate Grom and continue to make fun of the people that stand in line. I don't really know why. Probably b/c I hate seeing the line. Anything that increases crowdedness in the neighborhood automatically annoys me. Sorry =(

No one has mentioned D'agostino...am I missing something.

also..uwsmom...love the fact that you pretend to care! Friends who are married don't even bother pretending anymore.

D'Ags. Shopped there (57th Street & 9th) in the late 90s. Stopped after we noticed little roaches (they weren't roaches but looked like mini versions) everywhere.

Grom - first, the line isn't that long, it just looks long because they have the counter set up only 2 feet away from the sidewalk. Second, we can loll about in the back in A/C-ed comfort in the summer and have our gelatos.

"Uggh, we hate Grom and continue to make fun of the people that stand in line. I don't really know why. Probably b/c I hate seeing the line. Anything that increases crowdedness in the neighborhood automatically annoys me. Sorry =("

As someone who knows the Grom founders personally, I fully sympathize. I tried to help the situation, but unfortunately I think they really don't see the impact on the neighborhood.

go two doors down to beard papa's instead!