Zeytinia

[fatcatbrew]

Just received in the mail current "Clipper Magazine" and on the front page it states "COMING SOON" "Bergen County's Largest Selection of Imported Foods & Groceries"

Zeytinia will be opening soon at 350 Ramapo Valley Road in Oakland, NJ Their website is http://www.zeytinia.com/Home.html

Has anyone heard of this chain before or been to one of their locations?

Need to know whether or not to get excited over this grand opening :-)

Edited June 11, 2007 by fatcatbrew (log)

[Josefinajoisey]

Is that where the old Grand Union used to be? I know my mom said that an "amish" market was supposed to go in that space (they divided it up), but maybe this place is coming instead. I don't know about Oakland supporting a gourmet market...it might steal some thunder from Market Basket, which would be a good thing.

[fatcatbrew]

Mapquest put it in the same shopping center as Staples and DMV. Maybe it will go in where the CVS used to be.

[sjmoss]

Just received in the mail current "Clipper Magazine" and on the front page it states "COMING SOON" "Bergen County's Largest Selection of Imported Foods & Groceries"

Zeytinia will be opening soon at 350 Ramapo Valley Road in Oakland, NJ    Their website is http://www.zeytinia.com/Home.html

Has anyone heard of this chain before or been to one of their locations?

Need to know whether or not to get excited over this grand opening :-)

←

I have been to the one in Norwalk, CT and was not terribly impressed. It is a higher end store for sure, but with Market Basket not too far away, I would never choose Zeytinia over it. The one thing they will probably have more of is groceries. But for quality meat, fish and prepared foods, it will be the Market basket for me. Now if only we could get a Wegman in Bergen county I would be a happy camper.

[LJC]

They are a small gourmet grocer / prepared food / Deli from John St. in the Financial district. Pretty good but not great. They are also taking a space in Englewood....

[rooftop1000]

Its very very strange, nice but strange and I dont think they will last but...

Some nice produce and prices not off the charts but I noticed some spoilage

Great looking bakery all sorts of fancy minis and fruit tarts but the kind of stuff that might look better than it tastes also noted some spoilage here, actually called over a manager type washing up behind the bakery and had him pull a moldy plum tart from the case. He was funny as hell stammering about freshness and running around with the tart in his palm. I told him to make sure the staff come around the front and LOOK at what the customer sees.

They actualy have more brands of butter than Whole Foods, of course not the one I want and they are aging their own beef, I may stop back for a big fat steak later in the week.

I picked up Bonn Maman preserves 2 for $5.00 Labeled Bone Maman on the sign....and a nice Sherry Vin for $7.99

tracey

[Josefinajoisey]

I wasn't thrilled, either. I thought there was alot of produce spoilage, too. The 'salad bar' just didn't look appetizing. Green Mountain Gringo salsa was a good price...so I picked up a couple. That was my excitement.

I really like the chandeliers, though.

[bp1123]

Maybe I just hit a good week when they first opened, but the produce looked gorgeous & whatever I wound up getting was excellent. We tried the aged beef & wound up making the most memorable steak dinner we've had in a while. My husband thought it ranked up there with all the big name steakhouses.

Prices were much more reasonable than market basket.

[zhelder]

I took a ride up to this place today, after planning to go to Maywood Market. I was not expecting too much. I figured it would be another super highbrow store with super highbrow prices and so-so stuff.

I was pleasantly surprised.

They have some decent stuff here, and some things were very good deals. They had honeydews for $.99. I also got some smoked gouda with herbs, which I think was around $3.99 a pound. The cheese section was limited, but what was there looked good and reasonably priced.

The deli had pretty good sale prices: $5.99 for Virginia ham, $4.99 for turkey breast, $3.99 for Boar's Head provolone.

I didn't see many prepackaged prepared meals, but they did have a very nice salad bar with all items $5.99 per pound. The highlights were some very good stuffed grape leaves and a delicious cold ditali pasta salad made with sundried tomatoes and I think some very finely chopped mozzarella and herbs. This was similar to a fantastic penne pasta with sundried tomato and mozzarella salad we used to make when I worked for Grand Union. Delicious, although that GU salad will always be the champ in my mind.

I got some sushi, which I would say was comparable in price and quality to decent supermarket sushi. They had a nice combo pack of nigiri style eel and eel rolls for around $6.99.

I also got a Kit-Kat brownie, which was around $2.49. This may have been the most unique and possibily the best brownie I ever had. The brownine literally had Kit-Kat like wafers baked throughout the pastry, and a great chocolate flavor. I devoured it.

They had some nice looking cakes, but full cakes were pretty expensive. I got a couple of slices for $2.49 each.

There are a few problems with the place. Although it looks very nice inside, the aisles are very narrow and criss-cross. There are also some pretty stacked displays of glass and other fragile items on the corners of the aisles. It's hard to see people coming from the other direction when you're heading the opposite way from them. The crowd was moderate when I went, and I still had to slow down every time I came to an intersection to make sure I didn't crash into anyone. When the place gets really busy, a crash into one of the displays will almost definitely happen.

Also, most of the staff seemed pretty indifferent. There wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm, friendliness, or customer-oriented service evident. When I went to check out, there was only one register open, and the line, even though it moved at a pretty good clip, got long. Finally, a kid cleaning shelves came to open a second register just as it was my turn, but five employees must have seen the one register and the long line.

Overall, I would say that the prices and the highbrow factor fall smack dab in the middle of Maywood Market and Market Basket. The prices on most items won't have Maywood quaking in their boots anytime soon, but they are quite a bit cheaper for most items than the Market Basket. The crowd seemed to be quite a bit more casual than the typical Market Basket crowd too, but still quite a distance away from Maywood's mostly blue-collar crowd.

I will definitely come back. They do need to redo some of their displays and give their staff a good pep talk, but I liked what I saw and thought most of the prices were fair. There was plenty of parking too, unlike Maywood Market, where you may be taking your life into your hands during busy times trying to find a spot in their tiny lot.

But Maywood Market's still the best overall.

P.S. Zeytinia is having their official grand opening on 9/15/07. They will be having a complimentary buffet breakfast.

Edited September 8, 2007 by zhelder (log)

[rooftop1000]

We went back again this afternoon also, the bakery looked much better with all the fruit in the tarts fresh and moist looking. We picked up 2 ribeye steaks for tomorrow, a small wedge of camembert, crackers and French butter $31.00

tracey

oh yeah that kitkat brownie looked awsome but I knew we were going out tonight

Edited September 9, 2007 by rooftop1000 (log)

[zhelder]

I went back this morning, not for the free breakfast, but simply to get some more good stuff.

What a zoo.

The ENTIRE front end was jammed with people wating on a huge line for the breakfast. The bakery and deli were inaccessible.

Are people in Oakland that desperate for a free breakfast?

I took one look at the crowds and immediately muscled my way back outside. I'll go another day.

[Josefinajoisey]

People in Oakland:

A) Need another food store besides the insane experience of Shoprite on the hill.

B) Would like a "Market Basket" experience without actually going there.

I've grown up in Oakland, and have been to Zeytinia twice, and it's just not hitting it.

[Lima Bean]

Hi there,

We visited this market today and found some real bargins in vegtables and fruit, with bananas at .29 cents a lb. However, the rest of the market was on par with other places like market basket and whole foods, however we found the take out food (cold and hot bar) to be below our expectations, and wouldn't chance it. I don't think we will be making a trip there any time soon

Lima Bean

[SnorkelVik]

The first few times we went to Zeytinia I thought it was fine, not quite as great as it initially appears - you need to choose produce carefully, they don't carry the olive oil I like, etc. My fiance likes to get sandwiches there on his lunch hour. The last time we went they had Barilla pasta on sale for $1.49 a box. I found a box that had a price tag on it for $0.99 and brought that to the register. What I thought was so weird, is that most of their things don't have price tags (if I recall correctly) & I really think this box came from another supermarket / distributor who couldn't sell it. Is that crazy? Only a few boxes had the $0.99 price tag, the rest had none. I think there's something shady there, anyone else notice anything weird like that? I haven't been back, don't want to get 'deals' on my food.

[Wiener]

If this is the same chain I am thinking about, there is one located in downtown Manhattan three blocks from Wall Street near John Street. It is very very popular but be careful. They have a lot of the German and European chocolates, however, they are very old or made outside of the usual coutry where the products are from . For example, Milka chocolate bars usually are made in Germany- pale purple wrapper - but the ones sold in Zeytinia are from Poland. The ones I had were not so great. I guess you can run into this problem anywhere. Curious if it is the same market chain.

[menton1]

Looks like there is another imminent opening of Zeytinia in Englewood. I was over to the Oakland store a couple of weeks ago and was very underwhelmed. The place was not very busy on a Sunday at 11:30AM. I always worry about a deli that doesn't do enough turnover to keep the foods at their freshest. That was true of the Spanish ham, it was very very dry. Also the deli clerk did not know how to slice it properly.

The olive bar was fair, a small selection. The produce is boilerplate. The hot buffet table looked OK, but some of the tastings proved greasy and oversauced.

Not a place I would hurry back to.

Let me also say that I think the Market Basket is no big deal either. They are very overpriced on a lot of standard items, the deli is standard Boars Head fare, the produce is displayed nicely but grossly overpriced. But MB is always jammed, lots of turnover here.

Now Maywood Marketplace, there's a great place for cheese. Tremendous variety, very good pricing. A winner.

[SnorkelVik]

Let me also say that I think the Market Basket is no big deal either. They are very overpriced on a lot of standard items, the deli is standard Boars Head fare, the produce is displayed nicely but grossly overpriced. But MB is always jammed, lots of turnover here.

True, and that's why I always like to buy my seafood there. Whole Foods in Ridgewood isn't as good as the one I used to frequent in Northern VA.