Specialty food shops are growing in popularity in affluent downtowns throughout Fairfield County and neighboring Westchester, boosted by consumers”™ cravings for offerings from the artisan bakery or butcher.
“There has definitely been (a) resurgence in specialty trade shops,” said Kevin Coupe, a food industry analyst, author and editor of the Morning News Beat in Darien. “At most levels you see these shops all opening in places that are fairly well-to-do.”
In Westport, the SoNo Bakery Co. is scheduled to open in a section of A&J”™s Farm Market on Post Road East and the Saugatuck Craft Butcher has opened a shop at 575 Riverside Ave. at the new Saugatuck Center mixed-use development.
Coupe said as the “eat-local, buy-local” trend has caught on, these shops demand a premium for their product and experience.
Saugatuck Craft Butcher owner Ryan Fibiger said the shop sells meats from animals raised on local farms located within 100 miles of Westport and the slaughterhouses are in nearby Bristol, New Milford and Pine Plains, NY.
“Our mission is to bring back the neighborhood butcher with an emphasis on whole-animal butchery, education and the creation of community,” said Fibiger.
Fibiger brings his shop to the area after having spent the past year working at Fleisher”™s Grass and Organic Meats shop in Kingston, N.Y., whose owner will be a consultant for the new butcher shop.
“There is a lot of cachet that goes with buying local at this point,” said Coupe. “You are to a degree paying for a product that is specialty, but there”™s also a status symbol that comes along with being a patron of a shop where you feel like you”™re an exception to the general population.”
Coupe cited as early examples of this trend merchants like Dobbs & Bishop, a cheese shop that opened two years ago in Bronxville, N.Y., and Isabelle Et Vincent, a French bakery that opened three years ago in Fairfield. He said there”™s a growing appeal to patronizing the local butcher, fish market or bakery.
“There is a sort of nesting comfort element that goes on in people”™s minds,” said Coupe. “It essentially allows them to think well of themselves, not that they shouldn”™t, but it directly plays into how people want to see themselves. It speaks to the character of these patrons in a positive way. It is a phenomenon that is focused on people who have money and you”™ll see more shops that fit this model springing up in places like Dairen, Greenwich, Rye and Bronxville.”
Coupe said a savvy owner also allows for educational benefits with advice on how to cook a product or what to pair it with.
Oddvar Nygaard, founder of Fjord Fisheries in Cos Cob, said the key to a specialty operation is a knowledgeable owner who offers an authentic, quality product.
“We have a great product, but our Norwegian heritage is part of what people enjoy about coming to the stores and spending time there,” said Nygaard. He said his business has benefited from the lineage and the knowledge that comes with it in terms of the experience at the fishery.
Coupe said the retail demand for specialty items also reflects the trend of at-home entertaining. “The fact is food is one of the big indulgences that people still allow themselves and are willing to pay a premium for,” he said.
And he expects to see continued growth in specialty shops in certain downtowns. “You”™ll see these places popping up in the same places you see the Whole Foods,” said Coupe. “What”™s really interesting is that those large grocers directly compete with these shops but are also a great market detector.”
