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Special Report: Key Food/SuperFresh - Queens, NY (Oakland Gardens)

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Welcome to Oakland Gardens, a suburban neighborhood in northeastern Queens! Over the past several years, this neighborhood -- which only has two supermarkets -- has seen a lot of change in its grocery scene. What's going on here? Let's take an extensive look at the two stores.

214-14 73rd Ave, Oakland Gardens, NY

Let's start with 214-14 73rd Avenue, which is geographically kind of in the middle of Oakland Gardens. This supermarket dates back to the 1950s when it was a Food Fair, but by the mid-1970s, it became a Dan's Supreme supermarket. Dan's Supreme stuck around for a long time -- they became part of a group called Majors, and in 1990, Dan's Supreme's 21 stores all joined Key Food. So up until this past week, this store was a Key Food owned by Dan's Supreme (the Grobman family). On Friday, this store changed ownership and was taken over by a different Key Food operator called Food World, owned by Hi Jong Lee (aka Howard Lee, who also owns Food World, SuperFresh, and Jack's stores). So this store is in the process of switching from Key Food to SuperFresh. Simple enough, right? Not so fast. There was already a SuperFresh in Oakland Gardens...

61-46 Springfield Blvd, Oakland Gardens, NY

So this store is about half a mile northeast. It was a Big Apple supermarket, then ShopRite, and then a Key Food by the early 1980s. This Key Food didn't share ownership with the 73rd Avenue one, as it was owned by the Mandell family. Recently, as Key Food has increased their density in a lot of NYC neighborhoods, they decided they didn't want two stores of the same name but different owners in the same neighborhood. So the Mandells decided to switch this store to Holiday Farms, another brand they own. And in 2024, they sold the store, this time to the Collados. The Collados (not owning the Holiday Farms brand) switched it to SuperFresh. But now in 2026, to make way for the 73rd Avenue SuperFresh, the Collados have switched this store back to Key Food. Now, let's dive into the stores themselves.

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Key Food Supermarkets
Open: 1990-2026
Owner: Dan's Supreme Supermarkets / Brian Grobman
Previous Tenants: Food Fair (open by 1956) > Dan's Supreme (open by early 1970s) > Dan's Supreme Majors (ca. 1980s-1990)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 214-14 73rd Ave, Queens, NY
Photographed: April 18, 2025
Abbreviated post format here because this is just too much stuff for a regular post, so click on any picture to expand it. This store is around 22,000 square feet, having been expanded once out the back. The store is oriented with the front-end along the wall we see above, so that the street is on the right side and the parking lot is on the left. The grand aisle is on the left side of the store, with produce, deli, bakery, and meat all along that wall. The rest of meat lines the back wall, with frozen in the middle and dairy on the right side.
It was renovated not too long ago by Dan's Supreme, so it looks pretty nice, but when you look closely there were some deeper problems under the surface here. It's an old building, and it is starting to show its age. The new SuperFresh owners are doing some work, but it remains to be seen exactly how extensively they'll change the store over time.
The deli-bakery area is in an alcove at the back of the store, near the parking lot. 
Maintenance definitely slipped here in the last years that Dan's Supreme owned this store, and you can see evidence of that in the burnt-out lights and water stains on the ceiling. The new SuperFresh teams were out in full force on Friday doing minor fix-ups -- more on that soon.
Frozen foods are approximately in the middle of the store, with dairy in the last aisle.


SuperFresh
Opened: 2026
Owner: Hi Jong Lee
Previous Tenants: Food Fair (open by 1956) > Dan's Supreme (open by early 1970s) > Dan's Supreme Majors (ca. 1980s-1990) > Dan's Supreme Key Food (1990-2026)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 214-14 73rd Ave, Queens, NY
Photographed: May 29, 2026
The Key Food officially closed Thursday night, with the new owners taking over Friday morning at 7 am and opening by noon. The store was about 20% running when I visited -- 12:04 pm -- and over the next couple days, it'll complete the transition. Again, it remains to be seen whether they'll do a full remodel here, but they were definitely doing (much-needed) cleaning and simple fixes. The Key Food signs were coming down and being replaced with temporary SuperFresh ones...
And inside, the store was bustling with activity as new stock was coming in.
Before some of it could actually hit the shelves, though, there was work to do. I saw several people cleaning shelves, and some dismantling refrigeration to clean inside it (boy, was that necessary, from what I could see). In the grocery aisles, new SuperFresh employees were literally checking every item to see if it was expired, and unfortunately, a lot of it was. Again, it seemed like Dan's Supreme let this store slip -- as you can see in the pictures above, there definitely was a time that it was a really nice supermarket.
Deli/bakery was entirely closed for maintenance work, and parts of the surrounding area were covered with tarps or drop cloths while the new owners swapped out shelving and refrigeration.
The salad bar, which as you can see in the Key Food pictures was only partially full anyway, was being taken apart -- not sure if it'll be removed or simply fixed up and reopened. In just a few hours, there isn't time to do too much major work, but the meat department did get a new refrigerator, which you can see in the (blurry, sorry) picture below.
The rest of the meat department remained mostly empty as it was reset. You can see here, too, that the decor might be in need of some freshening up.
The grocery aisles had thinned out and now are beginning a reset. Also below, you can see an interesting moment at around 12:07, when the various early-bird customers (like me) wandering in wanted to start checking out. The store manager called all the cashiers to the front and handed out new blue SuperFresh aprons, which you can see them putting on. Even if these first-day transitions are always a bit of a mess, it's exciting because it means there's something coming.
I will definitely return to this store, probably in a few weeks once they've hit their rhythm. Now let's take a look at the other store in Oakland Gardens...


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Holiday Farms
Open: 2020-2024
Owner: David Mandell
Previous Tenants: Big Apple Supermarket (open by 1960) > ShopRite (open by 1971) > Key Food (open by 1981, closed 2020)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 61-46 Springfield Blvd, Queens, NY
Photographed: June 24, 2021
As I mentioned above, this one has a long history as a supermarket also, and appears to have been owned by the Mandells since the early 1980s. At just about 10,000 square feet, this one is quite a bit smaller than the 73rd Avenue one, which is why they may have wanted to use the Key Food name here and SuperFresh on the other. We begin our look at this store in 2021, when it was freshly renovated and recently converted to Holiday Farms. Although it's small, it's quite a nice supermarket and unlike 73rd Avenue has been kept up very well this time.
Produce and beer on the left side of the store, with frozen foods on the back. Meat is actually in the second-to-last aisle here, with dairy in the last aisle and deli/bakery in the front-right corner.
I know these pictures are small, so click on any to zoom in!


SuperFresh
Open: 2024-2026
Owner: Sam Collado
Previous Tenants: Big Apple Supermarket (open by 1960) > ShopRite (open by 1971) > Key Food (open by 1981, closed 2020) > Holiday Farms (2020-2024)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 61-46 Springfield Blvd, Queens, NY
Photographed: September 16, 2025
When Holiday Farms sold this store to Sam Collado in 2024, it was still only about four years out from a major renovation, so not much had to happen. The new owners reset the store and made some very minor changes, but not much needed to be done.
As an aside: I don't actually know with 100% certainty that Sam Collado owns this store, but right when it transitioned from Holiday Farms to SuperFresh, they had a week or two where this store didn't have its own circular but used the circular of Collado's other store -- the Village Market in Floral Park. That store is about three miles southeast.
SuperFresh signage was placed over the Holiday Farms signage...


Key Food
Opened: May 2026
Owner: Sam Collado
Previous Tenants: Big Apple Supermarket (open by 1960) > ShopRite (open by 1971) > Key Food (open by 1981, closed 2020) > Holiday Farms (2020-2024) > SuperFresh (2024-2026)
Cooperative: Key Food Stores
Location: 61-46 Springfield Blvd, Queens, NY
Photographed: May 29, 2026
...and now Key Food signage will be coming in place of that. I suppose it's coming full circle. Stay tuned for updates as these stores continue to make the transition!

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