With a new Fairway outpost opening on the Upper East Side this morning, Grub Street headed up to 86th Street to find out what the mob scene would be like at the new store. The answer: Pretty mobbed! The unruly line you can see in the photo above stretched down almost half of the avenue as loyal Fairway fans waited to ravage the new location. Those at the front of the line said they got there as early as 7 a.m. (!) for the 11 a.m. opening, and it took a full 30 minutes to get the entire line through the doors. (In other words, if you were just looking to get your groceries this morning, it might have been quicker to walk across the park to the West Side location.) We’ll give the Fairway staff credit for handling the huge crowd effectively, but UES residents actually hoping to get some shopping done might want to wait a few days for the excitement to die down a little.
The scene inside.Photo: Samantha Zalaznick
Earlier: Fairway Comes to the Upper East Side
