Stew Leonard's To Open Second Long Island Location In August

Stew Leonard’s, a “food-lover’s wonderland,” is opening the doors of its second Long Island location in August.

The grand opening of the 70,000-square-foot grocery store, located at 1897 Front St. in East Meadow, will be on Wednesday, Aug. 23. The store will employ 350 people. Seventy percent of those employees were promoted within the company, a Stew Leonard's representative said.

Long Island’s first Stew Leonard’s location opened in Farmingdale in January 2016. This will be the chain’s sixth store in the tri-state area.

“When my father first opened our dairy store in Connecticut, he never dreamed we’d one day have two stores on Long Island!” President and CEO Stew Leonard Jr. said in a press release. “In Farmingdale, I’ve already met many of new East Meadow neighbors and I am excited!”

The East Meadow store will offer local products, including vegetables harvested on Long Island, seafood caught off the coast of Montauk and milk from family-owned farms in upstate New York.

Stew Leonard's will be open every day of the week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The store was designed as an open concept so customers can see the employees hard at work.

This Stew Leonard’s location will include new features such as:

• Three 55-inch monitors built into the floor at the front of the store, which will feature social media customer-driven content, news and events.
• A number of pieces salvaged from old barns from New England and Amish Country dating to the early 1900s will be incorporated into the design. These pieces include reclaimed wood, milk crates, ladders, wagon wheels and fruit bins.
• A custom-made chandelier featuring milk bottles hanging in the Dairy section.
• The Butcher Shoppe will feature antique wagon wheels, barn doors and a 16-foot-wide steer horn.
• More than a dozen animatronic shows located throughout the new store, which will include a skateboarding Bobby Banana, soaring cows of the Stew-Mont Stakes and dancing Avocado Girls.

The family-owned and operated store was founded as a dairy store in 1969 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Image via Patch of Farmindale's Stew Leonard's location