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The Food Emporium - Brookfield, CT

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By Zachary
The Food Emporium
Opened: November 2025
Owner: Mike Hassen
Previous Tenants: none
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 731 Federal Rd, Brookfield, CT
Photographed: November 24, 2025
Welcome to Brookfield, CT, a city I don't think we've ever been to on The Market Report! It's just north of Danbury, and most of the retail in town is on Federal Road near the Danbury border. That's where there's a Big Y, a ShopRite, and a Stew Leonard's just over the border into Danbury. The north end of town has significantly less retail, though, with no other supermarkets until you get to New Milford about six miles north. Brookfield is hoping there's demand for a supermarket on the north end of town, near downtown, to get people their groceries without having to go through the heavier-traffic areas. And after a long construction process, Emporium Plaza opened last month. The plaza has a few retail businesses, several apartments, and a Food Emporium supermarket on the ground floor in a new-build building.
Facebook posts from Brookfield's economic development office say that Mike Hansen is the owner of this supermarket, but if I had to guess, it's probably actually Mike Hassen, a Key Food owner whose family previously had a store in Waterbury.
And while the 9500 square foot store is not a Key Food (although it's within the Key Food cooperative), the Key Food name still appears prominently on all the carts and baskets, which appear to be brand-new. Unfortunately for the carts, this is not a Key Food and it's not in New York.
But things look up inside. The store is small but well-appointed, basically a straightforward neighborhood supermarket that seems to fill a need in town. Floral is immediately inside the entrance, with produce lining the rest of the first aisle. Dairy is on the back wall, with frozen in the second-to-last aisle, and meat and beer in the last aisle. Deli and bakery are in the front-right corner.
The store is low-key but attractive. It doesn't feel overwhelmingly new and modern the way this CTown, another one of this weekend's posts, does, but it's crisp and pleasant. To me, the lower-key interior matches the small-town setting nicely.
There's been some thought put into merchandising here, such as the produce in small baskets rather than just sitting on shelves the more common way.
The decor is fun here, too, with several three-dimensional signs and accent pieces like this hanging structure over the produce department.
The selection here is pretty mainstream. While Key Food has expanded quite a lot over the last 10 years or so, and they're adept at setting up a store to match the area it's in, one thing they're less skilled at is running high-end supermarkets (with the exception of a few specific operators, like Brooklyn Fare). There are several specialty selections and a notable collection of local products up at the front, but this is basically an everyday neighborhood supermarket -- not a high-end store like The Food Emporium was once known as. That said, that also seems to be what this area was looking for.
The grocery aisles have plenty to choose from, though, given the small size. There's only six aisles here, including produce, frozen, and the last aisle with meat and beer.
Frozen foods in aisle five. Remember I mentioned some fun decor here? Well, that frozen foods sign below doesn't make much sense seen from the back, but viewed from the front of the store...
...the letters are angled off of the background, a very fun touch. There are a few similar signs around the store.
Meat and beer (not yet stocked, when I visited) in the last aisle, with deli and bakery at the front of this aisle.
The Food Emporium name is very prominent here, other than the carts of course. It seems there's some brand recognition for it from the A&P days, as there are enough ex-New Yorkers in this part of Connecticut that they may well know it from back then.
Key Food is also working on converting the former Giant Farmers Market in Waldwick into a Food Emporium, apparently under new ownership, and the Green Way Markets in Maplewood will also soon become a Food Emporium.
And a look across the front-end. You can see that the space, although small, is bright and pleasant. It feels like the right fit for a small town setting.
Don't miss this weekend's many other posts here!

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