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Brooklyn Fare fared well in our foodie review

The Brooklyn Fare supermarket on Schermerhorn St. in Downtown Brooklyn, the growing chain’s first location.
The Brooklyn Fare supermarket on Schermerhorn St. in Downtown Brooklyn, the growing chain’s first location.

MICHELE HERMAN | I did something I’ve been looking forward to for more than a year: I shopped at the newly opened Brooklyn Fare.

Ever since I first interviewed the store’s owner, Moe Issa, I’ve been hoping the new supermarket in the Archive building might save the West Village from the usurious prices of our other local options. I also hoped it might save my household from the elaborate alternative system we have worked out: my husband’s weekly marathon through Western Beef, Manhattan Produce, Amy’s Bread and the Italian import store to haul home our week’s staples in an old stroller. I bike to Trader Joe’s and fill up the baby seat with everything else.

I corralled my resistant husband – who watches food prices the way others watch the Dow – into joining me. Why, you might ask, was he reluctant to test out a store that’s no farther from home and that just might save him a fair amount of weekly aggravation and energy? It turns out he feels tremendous loyalty and responsibility to Western Beef, one of the few retailers left that still serves the un-affluent, not to mention our local firefighters.

In the extensive cheese department, he ignored the fine selection of fancy cheese and zeroed in on the basics: cheddar (cheaper at Manhattan Produce) and the parmigiano-reggiano (much cheaper at the Italian import place).

Things got more interesting in the bakery department. We ran into an old acquaintance who began kvelling about the store. In fact, she used to work at Mrs. Green’s and now works at Brooklyn Fare and is a true believer, a very energetic PR person or both.

“The people are wonderful,” she said. “They care about quality. Moe is here all the time checking things out. And there’s no ageism.”

She praised the French pastry chef and the tiny Spanish woman who makes the pasta fresh daily. She said the lemon chicken and the haricot verts with pistachios and pistachio oil are the finest she has ever had.

I know my spouse, and the more someone tries to impress him the more unimpressed he’s determined to be. But then we looked at the bread. The sourdough batards ($4.99) were beautiful and extremely fresh, as were the baguettes ($2.99, same as Amy’s, where he complains almost every week about the inefficient service). There were H&H bagels (available only wholesale these days) for 80 cents apiece. He’s a guy who loves a good onion bagel but can’t get one at any of our usual places; what could be bad? Croissants are $1.99, at least a dollar less than the neighborhood patisseries.

One piece of bad bakery news: Though Issa had hoped to do all the baking in-house, the Landmarks Preservation Commission didn’t approve the necessary venting; the baked goods and prepared foods are trucked down, still warm, from his other Manhattan store, on W. 37th St.

In the huge produce department (both regular and organic), pineapples and grape tomatoes were both on sale for an excellent 2 for $5. My husband approved of the price of peppers, onions, clementines, Brussels sprouts and much other produce.

Packaged bread prices were good, though the specials on Thomas’ English muffins at Western Beef can’t be beat. He praised the double pack of naan for $3.49, and said the Ocean Spray cranberry juice was competitive at 4.59. Amid the enormous selection of beer, he was surprised to see the same $14.99 deal Western Beef has had lately on 12 packs of bottled Heineken. He approved of the huge selection of bulk nuts and the Reynolds Wrap at $5.39 for a 50-foot roll.

We found the three-pound bargain-basement Camilla rice, but also an unusually extensive selection of Asian and Indian products, almost enough to save us an occasional trip to Chinatown or Curry Hill. He’s been complaining for months about the mysterious disappearance of canned whole Italian tomatoes. There were several brands, including a house brand on sale for a rock-bottom $1.99. And the new store aced our basic supermarket test: Barilla pasta on sale 5 for $5, as good as it gets.

We hit a snag in the butcher department, where I had to wait for quite a while to ask for chuck, which I planned to use for barley soup. The butcher apologized, saying he had just sold his last portion. I rejiggered my plans when I spied three kinds of fresh pierogis – once a favorite item of our regular menu rotation until Trader Joe’s stopped selling them.

In the end, the chuck was my only disappointment, and Hellman’s mayo ($7.49 for 30 ounces) the only product that seemed way too expensive. The rest of the store was a marvel: huge selection of ice cream, including Haagen-Dazs on sale at 2/$6 (lately 3/$10 at Western Beef), and Peanut Butter & Co. products on sale at 2/$7.

The store is bright and clean and jam-packed with normal and specialty goods. The cashier was friendly. The reward card is straightforward: 1 point per dollar spent.

“A good addition to the neighborhood,” my husband admitted as we exited on the ramp, letting him down easy.