In the Suburbs / Fairway, like no other market

They looked wide eyed, like children discovering wonderland. They moved like robots, exploring every inch of this new environment. They babbled with neighbors and friends, who also came to explore, about bargains, new-found treasures and the newness of it all.

And I loved watching and listening as my wife and I wandered through the maze that is the new Fairway Market — like no other market — in Stamford’s exploding south end. We stopped last Sunday afternoon on our way home from visiting friends in new York. We are no strangers to the Fairway family, having made the discovery through friends in new York, and we love shopping at the original 125th Street store just off the West side Highway. but I’m sure that many among the hundreds who were shopping last Sunday were very likely novices in the Fairway experience. it was fun to watch the couples and families wander aimlessly, discovering great produce, the endless selection of cheeses from all over the world and so many other treasures this special market offers.

What originally struck us about Fairway Manhattan was how cramped, yet cozy, the store is. For instance, the produce section is barely half the size of the produce department in the Stamford store, but it’s fun to navigate through it without bumping into too many carts. And the aisles are straight out of the history books — tight, overflowing with dry goods and so much fun to wander.

In the new York store you also have to park your cart behind four or five others if you’re buying cheese. The cheese counter in the Stamford store is pure heaven — wide and open. We brought our cart right up to the display window. The sales associates are so generous with the cheese samples that you can eat a whole cheese platter just waiting for portions to be cut…

But beware of the cheese costs. It’s easy to be taken in by the sign on a brand that reads $3.69 until you look below the price and see that the amount is for a quarter of a pound. In the early days of our Fairway shopping, we got carried away with buying half and three-quarter-pound wedges and suffering sticker shock at the cash register. now we’re much more careful.

The 125th Street Fairway market has a wonderful cold room for meat, poultry, lamb and pork, but we discovered that, probably for space utilization, this new mega grocery box just has an enormous selection of frozen and refrigerated selections. even more exciting, for the more Orthodox customers, there was a huge, separate Kosher beef and poultry selection, complete with a Kosher butcher on premises.

My wife and I were really impressed by how the designers of this new suburban Fairway Market had replicated those cozy, tight aisles from the two Manhattan stores. While these aisles weren’t as narrow, the dark green metal arches and shelves stacked to the brim gave the impression that this was just like the old-fashioned grocery markets. We felt right at home, especially maneuvering around the double-parked carts.

After wandering for more than an hour and buying much more than we’d intended — that gets habitual with Fairway, by the way — we decided to make our last stop the bakery. like new York, it was like reaching Nirvana. There was a selection of probably 15 or 20 different kinds of breads, including multi-grains, Italian and French loaves, rye and pumpernickel, not to forget the huge selection of rolls.

I was excited to discover a multi-grain with just 12 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber. I grabbed it and moved over to fantasyland — the fresh baked goods.

I went for the mini-Napoleons, mini-canolis and some dark chocolate cookies with all of 9 grams of carbohydrates per cookie.

Our moment of truth at the checkout counter wasn’t bad — under $100 for this first visit. We’ve been known to drop $150 in new York.

We gave this new suburban version of Fairway Market our stamp of approval and from the length of the line of traffic to get in, this new grocery mecca can’t help but succeed.

There is no question that Fairway has lots of competitors to overcome, including Stew Leonard’s, whole Foods, Fresh Market, Trader Joes, BJs, Costco, a range of small specialty markets across Fairfield County and standbys like Stop & Shop and Shoprite. but we look at Fairway as a special kind of market with a huge selection and some unusual finds. And the great part is that the store is just about a half-hour away from us in good traffic.

Just like its sister stores in new York, Fairway Stamford is definitely going to be a market like no other.

Steve Gaynes can be reached at

In the Suburbs / Fairway, like no other market

cheeses, couples, fairway market, maze, sunday afternoon