It’s the kosher version of Whole Foods, selling gourmet products at high-end prices to wean customers from the familiar “schlocky” fare of local competitors.
The kosher megastore Pomegranate is muscling into Midwood, Brooklyn, blaring its upscale pedigree with pride.
You want fancy meats?
Aged beef-rib steaks are there for the asking – at $23.99 a pound. And grab a handful of hand-stuffed olives while you’re at it, for $7.99 a pound.
Then there’s the structure itself, a 20,000-square-foot building that takes up an entire block on Coney Island Avenue.
“They don’t have anything like this in Brooklyn,” bragged manager Mayer Gold, 37.
The newcomer opens Aug. 19 – but its rivals aren’t worried.
“We’ve been here 30 years. We expect to be here another 30 years,” said Isaac Kalderon, 42, the manager of Glatt Mart on Avenue M. “When you’re here this long, people know what you are and what you’re about.”
“[Pomegranate] is just another fish in the ocean here,” said Yesocher Vidr, 57, who works behind the register at Schreiber’s Home Style Bakery on Avenue M.
And while Pomegranate’s milk, ground beef and other staples are competitively priced – a half gallon of Tropicana orange juice costs 50 cents more at Glatt Mart – shoppers may balk at its gourmet prices.
The homemade cheeses, for example, cost up to $14.99 a pound – about twice as much as prepackaged cheeses elsewhere.
“Everyone is really struggling [financially], and the idea that the supermarket will open with really high prices is not what people are looking for,” said Chanie Bodenstein, 38, a nurse from Midwood.
Still, Jewish blogs like JBlog Central are buzzing, as are local foodies.
“We’re counting down the days for it to open,” said Sarah Samit, 55, an accountant from Flatbush.
Abraham Banda, the owner of Pomegranate, is confident.
“I feel that the Orthodox community is ready for high-end food,” said Banda, a Hasidic Jew from Williamsburg. “You come here to get the best of everything and the best service.
“It’s not your regular schlocky store.”