Brothers Marketplace - Cambridge, MA

Brothers Marketplace
Opened: 2019

Owner: Michael Bozzuto

Previous Tenants: none

Cooperative: none

Location: 1 Broadway, Cambridge, MA

Photographed: February 22, 2020

We've seen several locations of the chain Roche Brothers now, and they also own Sudbury Farms and small-format, upscale Brothers Marketplace locations around the Boston area. In late 2024, Connecticut-based wholesaler Bozzuto's acquired all three chains. They also own Adams Hometown Markets and other assorted independents.

Although generally the Roche Brothers and Sudbury Farms stores are rather upscale, Brothers Marketplace is a further step up. They're small stores, but angled more towards being gourmet markets than regular supermarkets. This Brothers Marketplace was a new-build store in 2019, and measures just 12,000 square feet.

We enter to produce in the middle of the store. The grocery aisles, along with dairy and frozen, are on the left side of the supermarket, with butcher and seafood at the back. Deli, bakery, cheeses, and an extensive prepared foods selection are on the right side of the store, along with the registers.

As we can see, the store is modern and sleek in design. This seems to be a better-executed version of what bfresh was attempting to do, but still, several Brothers Marketplace stores have closed over the years. This chain isn't related to the Brother's Supermarket stores in Roslindale and Dorchester.

Roche Brothers and Brothers Marketplace have their own storebrands.

Frozen and dairy in the back-left corner, on the left-side wall and back wall of the store.

I like the look of the store, and I appreciate its simplicity. The decor could be more exciting, but it's pleasant as it is.

As we saw in some of the Roche Brothers, the service departments are quite extensive (here the grand aisle takes up roughly half of the store) and several are located in islands.

Butcher and seafood are on the back wall, with cheese and deli opposite.

Prepared foods here get their own department, with several different counters and self-serve bars.

I like the barrels!

Self-serve food bars are at the front of the store on the right side, with the registers in front of that.

And a bakery and coffee shop are at the front of the store, along with a small seating area. Incidentally, we're just a couple blocks here from MIT's campus, which likely means this store gets a lot of college students like some of the stores we saw around Harvard. Tomorrow, we're going to end the week with a bang -- three stores at Central Square, in the middle of downtown Cambridge!