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Special Report: Shop Fair Supermarkets - Manhattan, NY (Washington Heights/191st)

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Shop Fair Supermarkets
Opened: September 2026
Owner: Anibal Rodriguez
Previous Tenants: Radio Farms (open in 1950) > Gristedes > Fine Fare (1999-2025)
Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group / General Trading
Location: 1617 St Nicholas Ave, Manhattan, NY
Photographed: July 23, 2021; September 25, 2024; and September 17, 2026
It's always fun to see a new supermarket opening, and this one has some interesting quirks. So let's head up to Washington Heights in northern Manhattan to check out this new Shop Fair! It's tiny -- only about 5,000 square feet, although I have to imagine there's a basement. It's also been a grocery store for a very long time. In 1950, a produce market called Radio Farm was on this site, and I know that subsequently there was a Gristedes here although I'm not sure when. By 1999, it had become a Fine Fare, which closed last year. After extensive renovation, it reopened earlier this month as a Shop Fair.
The new Shop Fair is owned by Anibal Rodriguez, who owns an ever-growing collection of Shop Fair stores in and around New York City. That includes one just five blocks south, which opened in 2024. (Shameless plug: did you know you can search New York City supermarkets by the owner's name on my new website?)
So we're going to see a combination of my 2021/2024 photos of the Fine Fare with my pictures from this past week now that Shop Fair is open. The layout today is fairly similar to what it was previously, but the store has been very extensively redone. The front-right corner used to be produce and is now the deli-bakery, with produce and cold cuts continuing down the rest of the first aisle where dairy used to be. Meat was on the back wall before and is still there now, and while previously frozen foods were in the last aisle, now they've been joined by dairy.
By now, this decor is probably familiar if you've been following Shop Fair openings (also a Fine Fare).
Let's face it. This is a small supermarket. It was cramped before and now, with even more stuff in the store, it's even more cramped. But it was also bustling, when on my prior visits the Fine Fare was kind of quiet, making me think the new offerings are bringing in more people.
According to some signs up, it looks like this store is even baking some items in-store (breads, but not things like pastries or cakes).
The Fine Fare wasn't in bad shape at all but felt a little dated. The new Shop Fair definitely feels more current. Both Fine Fare and Shop Fair are affiliated with General Trading, a distributor based in north Jersey.
It looks like, even though most things are still in the same place, the refrigeration and shelving is all new.
The store's small size makes getting a good picture of the back wall difficult.
Moving cold cuts into aisle 1 has allowed Shop Fair to replace Fine Fare's small butcher window with a much larger, full-service butcher counter.
You can see some fixtures, like these freezers and some of the meat cases, were rather old. 
Frozen has been switched to the other side of the aisle, with dairy on the outside now.
The front end was definitely less cramped before, but it seems like a big part of that is that there are simply more shoppers in the store these days.
Another very nice new Shop Fair! I have to assume, with the rate that Anibal Rodriguez has been adding new locations in recent years, there are more to come. So I'll keep an eye out for that, and in the meantime, here's a look at this weekend's other posts!

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