Stew Leonard's - Newington, CT

Stew Leonard's Farm Fresh Foods

Owner: Stew Leonard, Jr

Opened: 2007

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none
Location: 3475 Berlin Tpk, Newington, CT

Photographed: October 30, 2025

Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted on April 8, 2024, but was rewritten with new photos in October 2026. Now for the post! Welcome to the Stew Leonard's in Newington -- where my original post was composed of an absolutely terrible picture of the outside and nothing else. So now we're back to see a full tour! The store, which opened in 2007 and sprawls over 100,000 square feet, looks much like the Paramus location inside although it's older and larger. 

As is typical of Stew Leonard's (and especially their older stores), the path through the supermarket is winding and labyrinthine. We begin at the wine store just inside the entrance, which as you can see is a separate storefront, and then wander past a coffee shop, an ice cream stand, and a dedicated candy shop before passing through produce and bakery on the right side of the store. The majority of the departments -- meat, grocery, seafood, and dairy/frozen -- are kind of in the middle of the store towards the back, with prepared foods, cheese, and deli on the left side as you approach the registers. There's also a cafe on the second floor.

As this store is on the older side, it seems to be that the decor and general setup here is noticeably more elaborate and quirky than some of the newer stores, such as those I'm most familiar with in New Jersey. This is certainly a grocery store you have to experience to believe.

Singing animatronics also populate the stores, from Las Chicas Aguacate to mooing cows. It's a true theme park of food, and at a shockingly large 113,000 square feet, this is also one of the largest supermarkets in the tiny state of Connecticut.

You can see in these pictures that, despite the enormous footprint of this supermarket, no part feels overly large because the path is carefully controlled like Ikea. There are no long straightaways nor standard supermarket departments.

There's a number of other supermarkets in Newington, a Hartford suburb, but none of the others have giant cobs of corn hanging from the ceiling. This certainly doesn't compete directly with any of the other mainstream grocers.

The emphasis here is of course on the fresh foods, and there really aren't regular grocery aisles. Instead, some shelves that line the path through the store display straightforward grocery items but mostly they're supplemental to the perishables rather than the main focus.

Progressive Grocer reported at the time that this store opened that it was one of the largest Stew Leonard's but not the actual largest, and that it was a former Caldor that required extensive renovation.  That article also highlights Miss Diva Cheese, an animatronic in the cheese department that I seem to have missed in my pictures. Luckily, the chain's then-advertising director described her to Progressive Grocer: "the soulful princess of provolone in the Stew Leonard's deli department." And truly, who could ever shop in a supermarket without a provolone princess?

Winding our way through the end of the store's sales floor, we get to the floral and gift department up front near the registers.

The cafe is on the second floor and overlooks the sales floor, though sadly here our view is somewhat limited by the HVAC and pipes hanging from the ceiling.

Back to the original 2024 post: Newington is about eight miles outside of Hartford, and we'll be in Hartford in just a few days! First, we're going to look at another store just outside of Hartford in West Hartford, right here on The Market Report!

This post was rewritten on October 22, 2026 with new photos.