Opening a food business now might seem like a risky idea, with COVID-19 still raging, employee shortages not abating, and some cities and states considering another round of dining restrictions and lockdowns. But these seven brands are committed to going forward with expansion plans in the New York City market. Here are the restaurants, supermarkets, and food halls expected to debut in 2021 and beyond.
Brooklyn Fare/Upper West Side
Despite its name, Brooklyn Fare is no longer in Brooklyn; the gourmet grocery founded in 2009 sold its downtown Brooklyn flagship store earlier this year. Now, this specialty chain is making more inroads into Manhattan. Joining its Hudson Yards and West Village sites will be a new Lincoln Center Brooklyn Fare on West End Avenue, with a planned opening in September, Brandon Issa, Brooklyn Fare’s regional manager, told SFA News Daily. The latest outpost is undergoing a “full reconstruction of the space,” he said. Approximately 80 team members will work in the 21,000-square-foot location.
Like the two existing Brooklyn Fare stores, the West End Avenue site will feature grocery items as well as grab and go meals, desserts, produce, and baked goods. Though not 100 percent locally sourced and organic, “we aim to curate a collection of products that are organic and locally sourced in both the perishable departments as well as dry goods,” said Issa. One feature the West End Avenue space won’t offer is the Michelin-starred Chef’s Table, a sit-down restaurant concept only at the Hudson Yards site, Issa said.
Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has made a dent in the opening of the new store. “There are supply chain issues, and it’s tougher to find labor for construction and employees for the store,” explained Issa. “But the fact that we are opening up during the pandemic, that’s a big step,” he added. “We are looking to expand as much as we can.”
Lidl/Astoria
The first New York City Lidl supermarket opened on April 7, taking over the 24,000-square-foot Best Market store in residential Astoria, Queens. (German-based Lidl, which has more than 10,000 stores across the globe and 130 U.S. supermarkets in nine states, bought out the regional grocery chain in 2019.) Instead of food stations with gourmet grab and go options a la Whole Foods and Wegmans, Lidl’s extra-wide aisles are filled with packaged supermarket staples—among them milk, eggs, frozen foods, cereal, bread, produce, cheese, juice, beer, and perishables like chicken and meat.
Lidl’s priority is “offering the highest quality products at unbelievably low prices,” public relations rep Chandler Ebeier said. Prices are definitely low, in some cases half of what you’d pay elsewhere. But the trade-off for saving money and a few-frills shopping experience means not having an in-store butcher and seafood counter. While Lidl has a bakery department, the produce section isn’t as extensive as that of other grocers, and organic products are scant. Shoppers can also expect to see aisles of merchandise like “household, tools, gardening, and seasonal non-food options,” said Ebeier.
The Astoria space is drawing crowds, and team members (approximately 65 in total) can be seen arranging shelves and at the checkout counters. Lidl plans to expand its New York City footprint with a second store in the works in Harlem, Ebeier said, though no opening date has been set.
Jollibee/Times Square
Filipino fast-food brand Jollibee has already moved into the New York City market, establishing one outlet in Manhattan and another in Queens. But the global company famous for its fried chicken, spaghetti, and signature Yumburger is betting big by opening a 7,127-square-foot flagship space in Times Square. The new space includes the ground floor and a lower level at 1500 Broadway, between 43rd and 44th Streets.
The move is part of Jollibee’s expansion into North America. Founded in the Philippines in 1978, the brand has stores all over the world but just 66 outlets in North America, mostly in California, according to QSR. Plans are underway to open stores in 300 North American locations by 2024, including downtown Chicago and Vancouver.
“The big vision of our company is to become one of the top-five restaurant companies in the world, and North America for one is going to be a key market for that international expansion,” said Maribeth Dela Cruz, president of Jollibee, North America, according to the report. Jollibee’s parent company, Jollibee Food Corporation, is already in the U.S. market with subsidiaries like Smashburger and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Amazon Fresh/Long Island
Amazon is taking advantage of a recently vacated Fairway supermarket on Long Island and using the space for its first Amazon Fresh store in New York State. The store—in Plainview, about 30 miles from Manhattan—comes in at approximately 55,000 square feet, and Amazon Fresh will occupy 60 percent of it, according to Progressive Grocer.
Unlike Amazon’s Amazon Go stores, which are smaller, convenience-store options with no checkouts, Amazon Fresh resembles a larger supermarket. “Customers shopping Amazon Fresh will find a wide assortment of national brands and high-quality produce, meat, and seafood. Plus, our culinary team offers customers a range of delicious prepared foods made fresh in store every day," according to Amazon. There is no word yet on when the Long Island store will make its debut, but 12 Amazon Fresh stores are open in California and a handful of other states.
Trader Joe’s/Queensboro Bridge
The 10th Trader Joe’s to open in Manhattan might be its most spectacular store yet. Patch has reported that Trader Joe’s has been renovating the cavernous, historic space with a tiled vaulted ceiling under the Queensboro Bridge at 59th Street and First Avenue. Bridgemarket, as the site is known, is a marketplace dating back to 1908 and was most recently occupied by New York supermarket outlet Food Emporium.
Local residents have been anticipating the store’s opening at the 50,000-square-foot Bridgemarket since rumors about it began before the pandemic. Though it’s not clear if the long wait has to do with COVID-19, Trader Joe’s is hoping for a late 2021 opening in the city-owned space, a company spokesperson told Patch in an August 4 article. While smaller supermarkets like D’Agostino’s and Morton Williams are popular in the neighborhood and a Whole Foods operates on 57th Street between Second and Third Avenues, adding a Trader Joe’s to the mix promises to bring more options and lower prices to the area.
Citizens Food Hall/West Midtown
Set to arrive later in 2021 in West Midtown on the border of Hudson Yards is Citizens New York, which calls itself a “food hall for the world.” This ambitious, 40,000-square-foot site is part of Manhattan West, a new retail and office development by Brookfield Properties spanning Ninth and Tenth Avenues between 31st and 33rd Streets.
Citizens New York is the brainchild of C3, a food and beverage company that pioneered the ghost kitchen concept—creating fast casual food brands for pickup and delivery that will now operate in a traditional brick and mortar retail environment. The culinary lineup includes C3 brands Krispy Rice, Umami Burger, and Sam’s Crispy Chicken, plus new food establishments from Spanish chef Dani Garcia and sushi chef Katsuya Uechi. A Citizens GO app is also in the works, which will allow customers to combine delivery or grab and go menu choices from any Citizens vendor into one order.
Wegmans/Astor Place
When Wegmans opened its first New York City store at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in October 2019, the debut made big headlines. Now the brand is in the news cycle again after signing a 30-year lease for the 82,000-square-foot space at 770 Broadway at Astor Place (the former site of Kmart). The new Wegmans is scheduled to open in the second half of 2023, and the store will occupy the ground floor and lower levels.
Wegmans devotees in Manhattan are cheering the announcement, which isn’t unexpected considering the brand’s cult-like following. If the Astor Place space is anything like Brooklyn, it’ll give the nearby Whole Foods in Union Square and Trader Joe’s on East 14th Street a run for their money. Wegmans in Brooklyn has earned raves for its huge produce selection, fresh meat and seafood counters, and extensive options of prepared items and grab and go meals. The Brooklyn store has a sit-down restaurant section as well, plus a sushi bar and dessert counter. Reviews praise the friendly staff, low prices, and the cleanliness of the space—an important factor with the COVID pandemic still on shoppers’ minds.
Related: Danny Meyer Talks NYC Vaccination Requirement; Wegmans to Open Manhattan Store.