An inside look at Brooklyn Fare!

By Sarah Portlock on April 23, 2009 1:07 pm in Development, Downtown Brooklyn, Food

Brooklyn Fare owner Moe Issa at his new store (BHB/Sarah Portlock)

We just got a tour of the new Brooklyn Fare grocery store that opened yesterday at the corner of Hoyt and Schermerhorn streets — and, so far, it all looks quite exciting.

Brooklyn Fare is, by all means, a swanky grocery store that is stocked with delicious-looking foods stacked along nice, clean wooden shelves. But, the prices aren’t actually all that high for what it is — a gallon of milk costs $4.69, and a dozen cage-free eggs is $3.59. A sirloin steak? $6.49 per pound, and fresh scallops are $16.99 per pound.

There is a hot foods bar, where prepared dinner sides like green beans with pistachios or cous cous are priced below $10 per pound and are prepared by head chef César Ramirez, who most recently was the head chef at Bar Blanc. Rotisserie chickens are $8. Fresh salads for lunch are $7. And, there’s a patisserie case stocked with tarts and cakes from Choice Market, in Clinton Hill (and soon to be in DUMBO), and a coffee bar.

The store will deliver groceries, but is still figuring out the final range. For now, it’s within a half-mile radius, a spokesman said. That information will all be available next week on its Web site, www.brooklynfare.com. In the meantime, the store is open every day, 7 am to 9 pm and the friendly staff is walking around, greeting shoppers and answering lots of questions.

Proprietor Moe Issa said he’s wanted to open a grocery store in the neighborhood as long as he can remember — he grew up here, and now that the neighborhood is changing, it needs something like Brooklyn Fare, he said.

“We’re trying to really bring great quality — that’s what our main focus is going to be,” Issa said. “The neighborhood doesn’t have anything like this,” noting that shopping at Trader Joe’s often requires additional shopping trips for things like fresh meat or produce.

“Here, you can do all your shopping,” he said. “We shopped around, and people now look at our prices and are shocked to find it so low.”

More information is available in Brooklyn Fare’s press release [pdf], and here’s a slideshow of photos of the store and its displays of seafood, meats, produce, and hot foods: