Fairway Looks To The East

Yard upon yard of produce, imported cheeses, hard-to-find gourmet items, a full butcher and seafood shop's all at competitive prices. It"s a foodie"s dream, and it may be coming to the Upper East Side. Representatives from Fairway Market, the legendary supermarket whose flagship location is on Broadway at West 74th Street, attended Community Board 8"s full board meeting March 17 to describe details of a store planned for 240 E. 86th Street, between Second and Third avenues. That space formerly housed a Circuit City, which went out of business, and a Barnes and Noble. â??I was surprised because everyone seems to want this, said Jacqueline Ludorf, the board"s chair, describing board members" positive reactions to the new store. â??Everyone kind of had a collective sigh of, â??Ooooh." However, Susan Graziano, a spokesperson for the company, said that nothing official had been signed yet and the Upper East Side location was not a done deal. â??Fairway does not want to comment yet until the lease is completely signed, Graziano said. At the moment, the company is focused on opening a Westchester store in Pelham Manor April 14 and, in the fall, a store in Stamford, Conn. A Douglaston, Queens store is also in the works for 2011. Fairway has stepped up its expansion plans in recent years, opening a store in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in 2005 and its first New Jersey branch, in Paramus, in 2009. The company typically schedules two new stores a year, according to Graziano, working with equity firm Sterling Investment Partners. At the Board 8 meeting, the only problem discussed related to the coordination of loading and unloading times so that traffic snarls could be avoided. Howard Glickberg, Fairway Markets" CEO, said the store would only truck in produce when employees would be immediately available to unload it, according to Ludorf. Ludorf said that based on the March 17 meeting, the Upper East Side location was at least a year away from opening. An informal survey of Upper East Siders revealed that most were excited about the prospect of a local Fairway, citing its reputation for low prices. â??I think it"s a great idea. It"s progress, said one woman outside the D"Agostino supermarket at East 83rd Street and Lexington Avenue, who declined to give her name. â??I"d definitely go there. It"s less expensive. And it would clean up 86th Street as well. -- With additional reporting by Samuel Chamberlain. Corrections added March 25 and April 16.