New York's Hottest New Spot? A Grocery Store.
Forget the glitz and glam of new members-only clubs, impossible-to-get dinner reservations, and downtown art gallery openings. Gone are the days of anticipating which new establishments will join the likes of Chez Margaux and 4 Charles. Instead, the most awaited opening in New York this season is…a grocery store. Meadow Lane, a gourmet market set to open later this month in Tribeca, hasn’t even unlocked its doors, and somehow, it’s become a full-blown cultural event.
That’s thanks to its founder, NYU grad Sammy Nussdorf, who has been documenting the store’s every step on TikTok under the handle @brokebackcontessa, a nod to his aspiration of becoming a gay Ina Garten. For months, he has documented his journey of prepared food taste tests, tile and paint samples, and his eternal wait for ConEd to show up and install the gas lines. “I’m opening a gourmet grocer in Tribeca,” he quips at the start of each video. For whatever reason, none of us can look away. The store’s opening has become Tribeca’s culinary equivalent of a slow-burn drama, with plenty of emotional investment, but featuring yakatori meatballs and cherry chocolate chia granola.
Remarkably, what Nussdorf is building feels less like a market and more like a lifestyle movement disguised as a grocery store. Meadow Lane promises rotisserie chickens and breakfast burritos, yes, but also hand-thrown ceramics, linen totes, and olive oils that look too pretty to open. The space itself leans into quiet luxury with its creamy neutrals, warm light, and intentionally arranged shelves. It’s grocery shopping as an aesthetic experience, where even the produce feels styled.
If this all feels somewhat nostalgic, it’s because Meadow Lane is picking up where the city’s last era of gourmet groceries left off. Dean & DeLuca once made grocery shopping aspirational, with its SoHo flagship serving as a cathedral for charcuterie delights and prepared foods. Since its closing, New Yorkers have had to settle for convenience over culinary fantasy. Aside from stalwarts like Butterfield Market, there hasn’t been a true temple of taste, until now that is.
As the world welcomes the opening of Meadow Lane, one thing is clear: gourmet grocers are back, baby! And they’re more performative than ever. Erewhon turned grocery shopping in Los Angeles into a spectator sport, complete with $20 smoothies, sea moss gel, and paparazzi-ready produce aisles. In the Hamptons, Round Swamp Farms made the mundane act of buying chicken salad into an upper-crust ritual, complete with tote bags designed by Lands’ End. Meadow Lane feels like the Manhattan iteration of this same phenomenon.
What separates the store from its predecessors isn’t what’s on the shelves, it’s what’s on the feed. Nussdorf has done what no ad campaign could: he’s made people all around the world care about the process. His transparency is his marketing. The TikToks are perfectly calibrated for an era that craves authenticity in glossy packaging. He isn’t just telling people to shop at Meadow Lane, he’s inviting customers to build it with himand it’s workingl. The hashtag #MeadowLane has amassed millions of views, spawning think pieces, fan edits, and even merch mock-ups ahead of its November 15th opening. Instagram users rejoiced when Nussdorf shared the news: “The newest national holiday,” wrote @jakeeldridge_ under the announcement. Another read, “FINALLYYYYY been waiting for her all year.”
Whether it will live up to the hype remains to be seen. Maybe the sandwiches will be life-changing, or maybe they’ll just be…sandwiches. But that’s almost beside the point. The allure of Meadow Lane isn’t the food, but rather the feeling. It’s the aspiration of a more elegant daily life.
When Meadow Lane finally opens, there will certainly be lines around the block, a million more TikToks made, and someone (likely me) inevitably crying over a sold-out Osaka Beef Bowl. Somewhere inside, the Brokeback Contessa will be smiling quietly to himself as the internet loses its mind – and we’ll all be watching.
