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Conventional wisdom says that one shouldn’t shop for food when hungry, but you can toss that advice out the window and bring your appetite at Newmarket’s upscale Farm Boy grocery store.
An opening day tour today of the Canadian food retailer’s 32nd, 32,000-square-foot Yonge Street store offered a feast for the senses. It is the company’s largest to date.
Early customers bustled through the wide aisles perfectly stocked with local produce and grocery staples, as the grill began to sizzle with bacon and eggs at the Farm Boy open-air kitchen.
Whether your gastronomic proclivities run to AAA Canadian beef aged for 14 days, or sustainably caught fish and seafood, or chef-prepared meals that go straight into the oven, or a heaping mound of fresh-cut French fries served from a modified shipping container, there’s plenty to get the taste buds tingling.
Farm Boy executive chef Josh Drache, who joined the company in 2011, talks passionately about the store’s farm-to-table concept, its commitment to sourcing local food and products, and the expansion of Farm Boy’s house brand.
“Our private label is a big part of what we do,” said Drache, of the now-1,100 products that include barbecue and pasta sauces, entrees, appetizers, condiments, cookies, popcorn, crackers, beverages, and more.
“We’re heavily leaning into the power of our brand and we work directly with local manufacturers,” he said. “We’re always looking for more dance partners who want to participate with us.”
As Drache approaches the chef-prepped food section of the store, he admits it’s “near and dear” to his heart.
“We’ve created products like the stuffed portobello mushrooms, which is filled with our Italian sausage meat, grated cheddar, brown rice and tomato sauce. It’s packed into a portobello mushroom cap with a little sprig of parsley on top,” he said. “Everything here is designed to take home and within half an hour you’re eating.”
“The flattened chickens are the best in the business,” Drache tells a customer who was contemplating the Tandoori, coconut lime, or lemon pepper options. “We take out the breast bone of the flattened chicken, too, so it only takes about 30 to 35 minutes to cook, and you can slice across the entire breast. The lemon pepper wings are the best in the city.”
Customer convenience is front-and-centre at Farm Boy, where about 160 full-time employees at its Ottawa food preparation facility prepare about 400 items fresh daily. That includes 18 varieties of soup, salads, entrees and more.
The main ingredient of Farm Boy’s butternut squash soup hails from a farmer in southwestern Ontario whose squashes grow to 25 pounds, Drache said with a laugh.
“This is high art,” he said. “The great thing about what we do, and that I’m super proud of, is that we have a very thin distribution line, it’s robust but it’s very tight. So, we’re in the markets yesterday morning, buying in Montreal and Toronto, making direct buys from farmers, and what was purchased yesterday is on the shelves today, the back rooms are empty, it’s all about having everything on the floor.”
Farm Boy is located at 18075 Yonge St. For more information, visit here.
Fast facts about Farm Boy Newmarket:
- 130 new jobs created
- Hundreds of Ontario fresh dairy, meat and grocery products
- Hormone-free, organic beef, pork and chicken
- 100 per cent Canadian AAA beef, deeply marbled and aged a minimum of 14 days
- Plenty of plant-based, vegan and vegetarian fresh foods
- A full restaurant quality dining experience featuring wholesome and healthy freshly packed salad bar favourites, fresh sushi and artisan pizza
- Comfort classic entrees ready to heat and enjoy
- Eco-friendly, sustainable fresh seafood
- Over 400 local farmstead, International and Canadian cheeses
- 18 varieties of fresh soups, all made from scratch and served hot or available cold
- Hundreds of popular Farm Boy private label products throughout the store
- Village Juicery on site to pour your own cold-pressed juices
- Burger truck serving hamburgers, fries, hotdogs, and poutine
