...
To address that need, Roche Bros. operatives applied lessons learned from a New York field trip to Eataly, a gourmet Italian marketplace made famous by culinary impresario Mario Batali, who recently opened Babbo Pizzeria e Enoteca at Fan Pier and is close to a deal to launch an Eataly in the Prudential Center next year. The New York Eataly trip inspired a menu of $7 to $9 charcuterie sandwiches, which uses such ingredients as truffled ham and fig mustards. The charcuterie sandwiches are a first for Wellesley-based Roche Bros., which operates its other 20 stores mostly in the suburbs.
The Downtown Crossing location has no parking lot where customers can load up a minivan with a week’s worth of groceries. As a result, the new Roche Bros. will emphasize prepared foods and small portions. Much of the store’s 3,000 square feet of street-level space will be devoted to “grab-and-go” items for breakfast and lunch, designed to appeal to the large number of office workers in the area.
Meanwhile, the store’s 22,000 square feet of basement space -- where brides once engaged in grab-your-dress fights -- will feature a deli, a salad bar, a soup bar, a butcher shop, a seafood area, and an on-site kitchen.
Customers will be able to customize meals with side dishes such as bok choy, tomato couscous, and Thai peanut noodles. Prepared dinners, ready to heat, include sesame-crusted tuna steak, grilled mahi-mahi with pineapple salsa, and black-pepper flank steak.
Then there are partially prepared meals such as salmon with raspberry sauce and rosemary-and-black pepper pork chops.
Focus group research of residents revealed something else about the neighborhood: They are more likely to host a wine-and-cheese soiree than a full-blown dinner party. And so Roche Bros. has stocked up with a wide array of small-plate items -- “We’re demystifying the tapas tray,” says Buckley -- but they can’t offer wine and beer yet (they plan to apply for a license).
But the store will be far more than tapas. At the end of 2016, Roche Bros. expects to add another 10,000 square feet of space in an adjacent building.
For harried households, one benefit of having a full-service supermarket near where you work is that they’ll deliver ($10 extra) within two hours of shopping. You can stop by during lunch, and by the time you head for the T, your groceries are sitting by your desk...
