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MONDAY, JAN. 18, 2016
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SCHOOL’S OUT 100 things every kid should do on LI newsday.com/family
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Beanies look cool and keep you warm
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writeaway
Children’s author Brian J. Heinz
presents a free writing class for all
levels of burgeoning authors,
including those with just an early
interest in writing, 7 p.m. tomorrow
at Barnes & Noble in Bay Shore.
631-369-0063, liaws.org
MARIA BOHRER
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cocoaklatch
It might be cold outside, but the
folks at the Ward Melville Heritage
Organization have a solution: They’re
serving hot cocoa during the weekly
children’s author series, “Hot Cocoa
and Marshmallows,” kicking off at
10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Stony
Brook with children’s author Beth
Cappodanno. Little ones can make
a craft, sing and play games, too.
$3, 631-689-5888, wmho.org
Things are looking up at Stew Leonard’s, where larger-than-life animatronic animals reside above the food displays.
a Stew-do list
10 tips for shopping at the chain’s first LI market
erica.marcus@newsday.com
MORGUE FILE
NEWSDAY, MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
newsday.com
BY ERICA MARCUS
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I
s it Disney, or is it a grocery store? Stew Leonard’s, the
Connecticut-based chain, opens in Farmingdale on Wednesday with the
same arsenal of amusements and proprietary foods that has earned it a
devoted following since the first store opened in 1969. Folks dressed up
as Holstein cows chat with your kids; giant animatronic
farm animals perform Stew-themed ditties; a track of
duck footprints leads to the restroom.
The 60,000-square-foot store, which takes over the
former site of Dave & Buster’s in Airport Plaza
shopping center, is the company’s fifth. The first Stew
Leonard’s was opened in Norwalk, Connecticut, by
ON THE COVER
founder Stew Leonard Sr. The other stores are in
Wow the Cow is
Danbury and Newington, Connecticut, and Yonkers.
an udder delight.
With A&P’s recent bankruptcy and
the subsequent closing of Long Island’s Waldbaum’s and Pathmark
stores, it’s been a sad season for
supermarkets on Long Island. Stew
Leonard’s promises to lift shoppers’
spirits. Here are 10 tips for making
the most of your visit.
1
FOLLOW THE HERD
Stew Leonard’s has a distinctive layout — one wide aisle
leads you through the entire store,
from produce, to bakery, dairy,
butcher shop, groceries, seafood, deli
and prepared foods. President and
CEO Stew Leonard Jr. said the
one-way aisle (827 feet at the Farmingdale store) was a response to the
first store’s odd configuration.
B3
261 Airport Plaza, Farmingdale,
516-962-8210, stewleonards.com
HOURS 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day but
Christmas
EVENT On Saturday, from noon to 2
p.m., Emeril Lagasse will sign copies of
his new book, “Essential Emeril:
Favorite Recipes and Hard-Won
Wisdom From My Life in the Kitchen”
(Oxmoor House, $19.99).
5
DON’T EXPECT TOO MUCH
GROCERY VARIETY
Stew Leonard’s is famous for
its narrow grocery options, about
2,200 items as opposed to a standard
supermarket’s 50,000 to 60,000. That
means 12 breakfast cereals, 10 salad
dressings, five olive oils, four brands
of pasta. And if you want laundry
detergent, you’d better like Tide.
Leonard freely admitted, “You absolutely cannot do all your shopping
here; you will have to go to a supermarket.” But when it comes to nonpackaged food, he believes Stew
Leonard’s beats the competition.
“Bakery, produce, meat, fish, dairy,
deli, prepared food — the stuff that
needs refrigeration that usually goes
around the perimeter of a supermarket — that’s where we focus.”
“When a restaurant next to our first
store went out of business, we took
over the space, so customers had to
make a right turn to keep shopping.
Since our dairy plant was right in the
middle of the property, there was no
way to make it a regular ‘box,’ and we
wound up with one big aisle. But
customers loved it, so we kept it and
made it our signature.”
2
SAMPLE THE WARES
Pastrami, meat loaf, Bolognese
sauce, macaroni and cheese,
cookies — Stew Leonard’s figures if
you taste these, you’ll buy them. So
the samples come fast and furious as
you make your way through the store.
WEDNESDAY
Art galleries
THURSDAY
Rockabilly show
FRIDAY
Paradise Weekend
at Planting Fields
newsday.com/exploreli
Studio 5404 in Massapequa brings an urban vibe
to Long Island’s suburban art scene.
6
REMEMBER TO LOOK UP
Above the food displays
throughout the store are
larger-than-life animatronic animals
that sing and, sometimes, play instruments. The clucking you hear while
you’re deciding between chicken
breasts and thighs emanates from
robotic birds perched (in coops)
above the poultry case. Leonard recalled, “My brother Tommy once saw
this animatronic piano player at a
Chuck E. Cheese. We ordered one,
put it on top of the cheese case,
plugged it in and it started playing
Dixieland. Kids went nuts, and we
started adding more ‘shows’ around
the store. We really want families to
walk out of here and say, ‘We had fun
at Stew Leonard’s.’ ”
BUY MILK
The Leonard family has been
dairy farmers since the 1600s. In
1923, Charles Leo Leonard, Stew Jr.’s
grandfather, founded Clover Farms
Dairy in Norwalk and, up until 2008,
the company pasteurized and bottled
its own milk. Now the store relies on
Byrne Dairy, a fourth-generation,
family-owned dairy headquartered in
Syracuse. Stew Leonard’s sells organic
milk for about $4 a half gallon, but
even the conventional milk (about $2
a half gallon, about $3 a gallon) is free
of antibiotics and artificial growth
hormones (including rBST). You’ll
also find butter, yogurt, cream and ice
cream bearing the Stew Leonard’s
label.
8
BUY BED LINENS
Among the food items at
Stew Leonard’s, there are always a few nonfood wild cards.
Winter coats and hats, for example,
or, at the Yonkers store last week,
six-piece sheet sets for full-, queenand king-size mattresses for only
$24.99.
9
TRY STEW’S STORE BRANDS
Leonard estimates that half of
the grocery items on the shelves
are private label. That means Stew
Leonard’s potato and tortilla chips,
olive oil, frozen pizzas, dried pasta
and more. “We think we can make a
better product and sell it at a lower
price,” he said. “Our marinara sauce is
made exactly to our recipe.” But don’t
worry — you’ll still find Oreos, Coke,
King Arthur flour and Domino sugar.
(In fact, in the baking section, all
you’ll find is five-pound bags of King
Arthur all-purpose flour and
four-pound bags of granulated
Domino sugar.)
10
LET STEW DO THE COOKING
Throughout the store are
products designed to cut
down on your time in the kitchen.
In the produce department, squash,
yams and turnips are already cubed;
Asian vegetables are sliced and
ready for stir-fry. In the butcher
shop, flank steaks have been stuffed,
pork chops have been breaded. Too
much work? There’s also a station
for barbecued and fried items, a
sushi bar, pizza ovens and an
immense serve-yourself hot buffet.
NEWSDAY, MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016
JONAH MARKOWITZ
7
CHECK OUT THE ‘NAKED’ MEAT
In addition to its conventional
meat, Stew Leonard’s sells a line
it labels “Naked” beef, chicken, pork
and turkey. These products are not
organic — they are not raised on
certified organic feed — but they have
not been given antibiotics or hormones and are harvested humanely.
Most of the per-pound prices of the
store’s conventional chickens and
chicken parts are less than $3, Naked
chicken sells for, on average, $2 more
per pound. Conventional pork hovers
around $4 a pound; Naked pork is up
to $2 more. Most conventional beef
ranges from $6 to $12 a pound,
depending on cut; Naked beef is 25 to
30 percent more.
The distinctive layout at Stew Leonard’s features one wide aisle that leads
shoppers through the entire store.
newsday.com
Prepared foods range from meats to
vegetables and include an immense
serve-yourself hot buffet.
TOMORROW
Herring fishing
JONAH MARKOWITZ
3
comingup
BRUCE GILBERT
STEW LEONARD’S
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4
WATCH THE WORKERS WORK
Butchers, fishmongers, produce fluffers, pineapple corers
and bakers all perform their appointed tasks in full view of the customers. Pay special attention to the
bakers because they are turning out
some impressive products: brioche
loaves and buns, Kalamata olive
bread, chewy chocolate pecan cookies
and buttery croissants are among the
products we sampled and liked.