Whole Foods Market will open a 50,000-square-foot Rochester store in the town of Brighton, New York, Wednesday.
The location’s mid-century design leans into Rochester’s history as an epicenter for photography. This includes an enlarged film strip over the specialty department featuring local landmarks as a nod to Kodak. The store features more than 500 local items from Central and Western New York, sourced with the help of John Lawson, local forager for Whole Foods Market’s Northeast Region.
The store will include:
• An in-house veggie butcher cutting fruits and vegetables to order. Offerings from more than a dozen local farms, including greens from Agbotic, tomatoes from Intergrow Greenhouses, beets from Stick and Stone Farm, and apples from Hudson River Fruit.
• A specialty department dedicated to celebrating cheesemakers and artisan producers. Featuring fresh pastas from Severino Pasta and local items including Lumberjack Bucheron from Old Chatham Creamery and cheese curds from Family Farmstead Dairy. The cheese counter is overseen by trained cheesemongers who can offer recommendations and create custom boards.
• A curated grocery section with private label 365 by Whole Foods Market and local products including coffee from Bold & Gritty, sauces from Rubino’s Italian Foods, pastas from Bozza’s, and kombucha from Katboocha.
• A full-service seafood counter featuring made-in-house seafood cakes and burgers, ready-to-cook meals, and fishmongers ready to cut and fillet any order. All seafood department offerings are sustainable, wild-caught or Responsibly Farmed.
• Full-service meat counter with craftsman butchers available to cut steaks to order or debone poultry. Features include made-in-house dry aged beef, sausages, and ground beef. Local options include sausage from Bilinski’s and pork from Briar Woods Farms.
• A selection of more than 200 craft beers. Local options include Swiftwater Brewing, Fifth Frame Brewing Co., and Strangebird.
• A prepared Foods section that includes a hot food bar, salad bar, soup station, made-in-house rotisserie chicken, fresh hot pizza, sushi by Kikka, and prepacked salads and sandwiches to-go. The store will also include Za’atar, a Mediterranean-inspired Whole Foods Market venue, featuring fresh salads and grain bowls.
• A bakery department offering made-in-house bread as well as spring seasonal favorites, such as Whole Foods Market’s Mango Yuzu Chantilly cake, strawberry rhubarb pie and raspberry rhubarb scones.
Related: Whole Foods Sources Regenerative Simpli; Giant Debuts Flagship Eatery.