Fancy Grocery Coming to the South End

The internet is abuzz about a Fairway grocery opening in the South End in early 2010. Clearly, I am not from this area, because I have no idea why that's a big deal! I vaguely knew Fairway was a grocery, but I figured it was just a regular New York grocery like Gristedes, but maybe bigger. In researching this post, I gather that Fairway is a grocery store based in NYC that is known for its produce and wide selection of cool food stuff. Read a bunch of the rave reviews on Yelp and you'll get the idea.

According to readers on Chowhound, the new store will be in the Yale and Towne property on the corner of Canal and Market. That's sort of near where the UHaul rental place is. I hate to be a traffic alarmist, but that corner is a mess as it is. I assume they'll fix up the traffic flow for us.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the location. (See google map.) There are no other stores around there. Is the location near where Antares is putting up their new apartments/office complexes? Is that why they are putting it there? And are they planning more fancy stores? Rather than a one-stop grocery, if we're going to have a slice of traffic hell, we might as well have a few stores to hit before we head back out and block the paths of the other people who are trying to get in. (I'm thinking of the Summer St. Bed Bath Beyond mess, which I suppose is not that bad... unless it's Christmas time... which is coming soon, BTW. I'm already starting my Stamford Talk gift guide.)