The Fresh Market has revamped its original store in Greensboro, North Carolina, to include a central foodservice area offering a variety of made-to-order, restaurant-style foods, a significant new service element for the 159-unit chain.
“We have taken our fresh, curated ingredients and created a new in-store culinary experience featuring signature dishes you won’t find anywhere else,” said Jason Potter, CEO of The Fresh Market, in a letter to customers in the retailer’s local magazine.
Although the chain offers grab-and-go prepared foods at every location, this is the first store with made-to-order foodservice. Offerings include barbecue smoked in-house, a variety of braises, brick-oven pizza by the slice or whole pie, sandwiches and panini, artisan tacos, salads, smoothies, and a menu of store-baked biscuits.
A key element of the store revamp is the introduction of a Roasting Plant Coffee cafe, where customers can order freshly ground and brewed coffee, roasted daily, using fully traceable, single-origin beans. The brand’s Javabot automated dispensing system allows customers to select from among several varieties of beans to personalize their coffee by the cup. Beans are also available by the pound.
“You are going to be able to get the freshest cup of coffee anywhere in the world, and you are going to be able to get that right here in Greensboro — freshly roasted, freshly ground as you order,” said Brian Johnson, senior vice president of store operations, The Fresh Market, in a video filmed following the grand opening of the Greensboro store on Wednesday.
According to Roasting Plant Coffee’s website, the company roasts its beans every day in each of its cafes, using only the highest grade, directly sourced specialty beans. The location in the Greensboro Fresh Market store is one of only a handful in the U.S., along with one each in New York City, Detroit, Denver, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. It also has three locations in London.
“The Fresh Market team have done an incredible job of including us seamlessly,” said Jamie Robertson, CEO of Roasting Plant Coffee, in the video.
Another key foodservice element is the store-baked biscuit program, featuring items such as a Fried Chicken and Pimento Biscuit with heritage pimento cheese using a family recipe from The Fresh Market’s founding Berry family, a slice of pickled green tomato from Doux South, and a house-made sauce. Other biscuits include a Korean Fried Chicken Biscuit, a Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit with peppered candied bacon, and a Strawberry Shortcake Biscuit with fresh strawberries, crème fraiche, fresh mint, and The Fresh Market’s own strawberry jam.
Other made-to-order foodservice departments in the store include:
• The barbecue station, which offers pulled pork, beef brisket, St. Louis spareribs, turkey breast, and pork roast, along with an assortment of sides;
• Brick-oven pizza, including specialties such as the Meat Monster and the veggie-topped Flower Child, as well as customized pies;
• Sandwiches and artisan tacos, including a vegetarian Jackfruit Carnitas Taco. Sandwiches include a Chicken BLTA with avocado and garlic-rubbed kale, a Roasted Turkey Bahn Mi, an Ultimate Crab Cake, among others, as well as build-your-own options. An assortment of panini is also on the menu.
• Made-to-order smoothies featuring on-trend ingredients such as baobab, moringa, goji berries, and others. The Tropical Chili Mango Smoothie, for example, is topped with tajin-seasoned hemp seeds with ground chili, sea salt, and dehydrated lime.
Other foodservice offerings include an acai bowl, a variety of braises, and roasted or fried chicken, as well as wings.
In addition to the new array of foodservice elements, the newly remodeled store also offers an expanded wine assortment and more charcuterie.
Patrice Molnar, director of communications and public relations at The Fresh Market, said the store will serve both local residents and those who work in the area.
“As a specialty grocery store that has been in this location for almost 40 years, we have a lot of regular daily/weekly shoppers,” she told SFA News Daily. “Adding fresh coffee creates a destination for Greensboro residents, as does the made-to-order restaurant in the middle of the store.”
The new flagship store opened amid a transformation effort at the specialty food retailer, which brought Potter and Johnson on board last year following multiple rounds of store closures and efforts to give the stores more mainstream appeal. The Fresh Market, which previously had been publicly traded, was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2016.
Ray Berry and his wife Beverly first opened the flagship Fresh market store in Greensboro in 1982, inspired by the food markets of Europe.
Related: The Fresh Market Named Best Supermarket in America; The Fresh Market Debuts Monthly Magazine.