New signs of life on Riverdale Avenue

By N. Clark Judd

There’s a new sign up on Riverdale Avenue and it’s causing a buzz.

After all, for the last year, stores closing or struggling to stay open in the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area have been a far more common sight than signs announcing a new tenant.

But one Riverdale resident says he’s signed the lease, put together the partners, and plans to open an Italian deli in what was once Fieldston Market this fall. And he says the business will answers an oft-repeated complaint about Riverdale: There’s nowhere to go for high-end groceries.

“Here we are in Riverdale, which is the most exclusive area in the Bronx, and we don’t even have the delicacies of the Bronx,” said Jay Nadler, who is opening the store he’ll call Jay-Bar’s after the Jewish holidays this fall. “There’s no Italian deli, there’s no fresh fruit market, you got Key Food and Food Emporium, [but] Food Emporium just closed their butcher shop down.”

Mr. Nadler plans to bring Arthur Avenue staples like fresh fruits, deli meats and cheeses, as well as specialty items from around the city, into a space just a little over half the size of former tenant Fieldston Market, which closed down last year.

It won’t have the scope of a Whole Foods, said Mr. Nadler. But it will, he hopes, bring a neighborhood feel that he hasn’t found in Riverdale: A place to get fresh mozzarella or antipasti, or sit down and eat a sandwich.

And he hopes it’ll bring a much-needed lift to Riverdale Avenue.

“With that block being empty, it made people shy away,” Mr. Nadler said. “But I know what Riverdale needs.”

This is part of the July 30, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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