to market, to market, redux

So, it seems downtown Hartford is getting a Dean & Deluca-style grocer after all, in the large retail space in the Hartford 21 building. The folks behind the award-winning Pintore Catering and The Mill at 2T restaurant are behind it, as is the City to the tune of $300K (to be recouped in the last 7 years of the 10-year lease). We wonder if this survey was part of their R&D for the viability of such a store, which will feature prepared foods as well as groceries, and will be open 7 days a week. With the new convenience market across the street, residents and downtown workers will have two walkable places to pick up provisions.

As an aside to anyone who read the Courant article and thinks everybody in Downtown Hartford eschews buying groceries and we all eat out every night because there was no Dean & Deluca-style grocer in town: We don’t. We drive or take the bus to Stop & Shop in Wethersfield or the West End, or we order online and let PeaPod deliver.

But we are looking forward to a good baguette and a nice cheese selection…

downtown dress shop to be a grocery-deli

When they put a grocery store where a dress shop used to be, you will not be required to dress up when shopping there. Unless you are Taylor Swift.

The Hartford Business Journal reports that the former Niro dress shop, at 241 Asylum Ave., will soon be the site of a new grocery/deli. Unlike Rose Gourmet or Max Bibo Deli, the hours for shop will be more amenable for downtown residents and evening visitors instead of just lunching business-folk.

We find it interesting that it will be across the street from the Hartford 21 storefront that Northland outfitted to be a grocery store on spec a few years ago, that still sits empty. So many of the Northland storefronts (Goodwin Hotel shops, Hartford 21, the North side of Pratt St) have sat empty for years while the properties across the street from them are occupied. Makes you wonder how hard they tried to fill them.

Taylor Swift photo via.