I am lucky to live between two subway lines and near to a third if I want a slightly longer walk. Between those lines, we live in the middle of five stations. Almost all of these past by a large supermarket with all but one strictly kosher. If I were to hop on my bike and venture further afield, we’re a short ride from several fruit markets. If we jump in the car we can easily visit Fairway Redhook.

Recently a new kosher supermarket opened up. You may have heard of it as it was written up in the Times. I assume it was probably also written up in the jblogosphere. This post will just highlight my first impressions as I’ll reserve complete judgment until after the holidays. If it’s still clean and full of polite staff I’ll be very impressed.

Previously in that location was a large yet dingy, dirty, full of rude staff, “old school” kosher supermarket. The best things about it were its pesach (passover) mega-ness, and its selection of gluten-free products.

Now? It’s bright and clean and two carts can go down an aisle. The staff were kind to the point that the reminded me of airline steward(esse)s. There is a wide range of products available. While E and I have no problem going through all the aisles of a regular store and looking to see if something is heschered (certified kosher), it’s nice to know I just have to verify it quickly instead of scrutinizing the item. What has won me to at least shop here occasionally is that I can pick up cholov yisrael (aka Kosher) wedges of Parmesan-Reggiano, something I can’t obtain affordably anywhere else. E and I have visited twice; Once on a Sunday afternoon and once to figure out what to eat for a weeknight dinner. I’m impressed with the range of goods available, from non-cholov yisrael milk (to me this is big, the other strictly kosher supermarkets in the area don’t do this and I think it is an inclusive move) to a (somewhat limited) range of Sephardi heschered meat-items, which is nice. There is everything in between.

However, there is in my opinion, one section that was severely downsized from the offerings of the previous store*. The GF selection has practically disappeared or is now so scattered that I couldn’t find items (I found some pasta, but not bread mixes). I won’t raise this with management yet as I’m happy with where I buy my GF foods and don’t buy enough of the “specialty products” to make it an issue (I buy perhaps one bag of pasta a month and a bread mix every quarter), but it makes me sad and I hope that those who need will work with management to include these items.

My other concern is that other than say Gefen, there aren’t generic brands available. I’ve lowered our grocery bill by over 10% from Jan-today from the same period last year mostly by switching to the store brands. It’s the same product and we don’t notice. I don’t buy everything store-brand but it’s helped the bill tremendously especially as I added more GF products.

Overall I’m pleased with the changes this new opening brought on the community and hope that the cleanliness and smiles—on everyone’s faces—lasts.

In response to the NYT article I feel the need to say the following: The wedge cheese was the only significant savings I saw over the other local stores; I don’t know about the meats as we don’t buy meat. Also, just because you believe it should have a kosher symbol on it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t double check. However, it is nice to know that someone won’t be leaving a slab of bacon next to the eggs because they didn’t want to put it back. Also, I saw panko in ShopRite (and perhaps King Tomato) the other day, and I believe that was prior to the opening of Pomegranate. It’s not that unique, many of our kosher supermarkets provide a large range of international goods. I have a few other comments but I promised to try to keep this post brief. ;)

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* I know nothing about and do not think it important for me to know how, why, or if ownership changed. I do know that a lengthy and extensive renovation and rebranding took place. All I am trying to say is that when I used to shop at the kosher store in this location there was a large range of offerings for this category which no longer existed at the time of our recent visits.