Ribbon Cut On New Elm City Market

Ten months after Elm City Market closed its 360 State St. location, the grocery store reopened its doors Friday in a new, smaller site a few blocks away, in a ground-floor commercial space at the old Coliseum site.

“Fresh, fabulous and photogenic Elm City Market,” city Deputy Economic Development Administrator Cathy Graves said during a celebratory ribbon cutting. ​“Elm City Market is not just a grocery store, it’s an experience, so come on down.”

The new location at 275 Orange St. is smaller but more conveniently located, according to CEO Kurt Luttecke’s ​“off script” speech that ​“my PR people are gonna yell at me for.”

“It’s gonna be really similar to the old market, you’re gonna see a lot of products you have grown to love,” Luttecke said. ​“We always had a vision of a smaller market, and these locations are always much easier to do.” 

There are two parking lots across the street and easy access from I‑91 and I‑95. The store itself is at the southwest corner of the new 200-unit ​“Square 10” apartment building recently opened atop the old Coliseum site. A new grocery store called Market 360, meanwhile, opened last month in the 360 State space vacated by Elm City Market.

“It’s happening here at Square 10. We’re so grateful that the leadership of Elm City Market has made this a community grocery store,” said Mayor Justin Elicker. 

“We truly are a community market,” Luttecke said. ​“But not just the local community, but the broader community too, to bring good food to people all around us.” He heralded locally sourced vegetables and meat, and said, ​“We focus strongly on healthy, organic, good food.” 

Elm City Market is also partnering with the local farmers-market nonprofit CitySeed, and is taking part in its pilot program to bring in a larger amount of farm products to its shelves. That pilot will start next week. 

“What we found is that there’s a lot of institutions that would like to access larger quantities of farm products, but need more than what’s available at the markets,” said Sarah Miller, CitySeed’s executive director who also serves as a Fair Haven alder. ​“We all know that a tomato you get that was harvested a couple days ago is more nutritious and tasted better than a tomato that’s been on a truck for months sometimes.”

The new location also features a community room that will host various cooking or other community classes, and that will be open to various business collaborations. Delivery and pre-order options are also going to be available, but are down until the end of the summer. 

The new Elm City Market also features an order window for easy access. 

“We want you to come in, trust me,” Luttecke said. ​“We want you in the store, but if you can’t make it in we have convenience factors built in.”

“When we talk about Downtown to New Haven and New Haven to Downtown, this is what we’re talking about,” said Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez. ​“This reopening is amazing because we have workers throughout the city, and especially from Hill, that work, live and play here and they have Elm City back on the market, no pun intended, to be able to utilize it. We are so excited to see this grow for the communities and we are so excited to be here.” 

Suzanne Smith said she was a loyal customer back at the old location at 360 State, and can definitely see herself continuing to be one at this new spot. 

“I just really like the look of it,” Smith said. ​“It’s nice, fresh looking and all the veggies look good. I missed the old one.”

The new Elm City Market will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.