Inside Eli Zabar's East Side Empire

In the 1850s, Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, suggested that people seeking good fortune should head west, and many chose that path. Zabars, the high-end grocery store, has been an Upper West Side tradition since it opened nearly a century ago. However, when Eli Zabar sold his stake in the family business a little over 50 years ago, he decided to go East instead.

He has never regretted this decision, and many New Yorkers may also be grateful that he made it.

Eli Zabar helped the Zabar name and brand become synonymous with the first family of food, by expanding eastward. The first lady of the company, Devon Zabar, Eli’s  spouse, along with their sons Oliver and Sasha, keep the family business in the family.

“Zabar’s was an American grocery store a little bit like a Jewish delicatessen,” Oliver Zabar, Eli Zabar’s managing director and one of Eli’s two sons, said. “He was more interested in importing things.”

Zabar’s on the West Side was started by Eli’s father, Louis Zabar, a little more than 90 years ago.

“In the early ’70s, my father sold his shares in Zabar’s and moved to the East Side, to open his own stores,” Oliver said. “He’s not connected to that store as a business, but we’re still family.”

Eli Zabar’s entrepreneurial side may have led him to launch his own business, but something else also may have helped.

“He’s the youngest brother by 18 years. Being the youngest, he felt it’d be hard to make his mark,” Oliver said.“I think he liked the East Side, the atmosphere here. It’s a different world.”

There also was the desire to divide the city in a way where the Zabars wouldn’t be vying with each other.

“They didn’t want to compete against each other,” Oliver continued. “He liked the East Side. They liked the West Side.”

Eli opened EAT in 1973 on the Upper East Side and has since expanded an East Side eating empire, including Eli’s market, their flagship  grocery store on Third Avenue; Eli’s Table restaurant; Night Shift bar; Bar 91 wine bar and bistro, and numerous Eli’s Essentials, smaller stores, as well as Eli’s Bread, a wholesale bakery.

Eli’s Market, a 30,000-square-foot store that opened on 80th Street a little bit before 2000, seeks to showcase a European sensibility and style.

“He built it to reflect the markets of Europe, Barcelona, Paris,” Oliver added. “Each section feels like you’re in a very special place.”

Stroll through the store’s produce section and you’ll see produce piled taller than customers, very different from the neat aisles of supermarkets. “You don’t walk down aisles,” Oliver said. “It’s an immersive experience.”

Whether it’s cheese, meat or produce, product is sourced and air freighted in. “Everything we can make in house we do. Pasta, sauces, prepared food, jams,” Oliver said. “Things most people would buy from another brand, we make ourselves.”

They roast their own coffee beans, And their bakery supplies many restaurants, providing bread and pastries.

“He started the bread craze in New York. Not eating basic white bread,” Oliver said. “He starred baking bread for his stores and the restaurants. People came in and said they liked the bread. Could they have the bread in their store.”

They began wholesaling bread and pastries, growing that to a 100-person operation. By the 1990s, they started operating restaurants,  serving food in a formal setting with Eli’s Table, then Bar 91 and Night Shift.

“We opened a restaurant to showcase all the food that we have,” Oliver said. “The chefs come in during the morning, shop the store, go through the market, pick what’s fresh, new and coming in. And they turn it into delicious food.”

Eli Zabar also delivers, supplying East Enders with goods from their Manhattan operations through their Home Shop business.

“It’s pretty unique,” Oliver Zabar aid. “You call our store and one of our dedicated home shoppers walks you through the specials of the day, things that have just come in, things arriving off the plane. It’s a very personalized style of shopping for people who can’t make it to the store.

Goods delivered rapidly in New York City and the same day across Long Island, primarily in the Hamptons.

“It’s evolved. We’ve produced more products, different products,” Oliver said. “But it stays true to Eli’s ethos, fresh, made in house.”

Lamb arrives from Colorado, chickens from Pennsylvania and pigs from Upstate New York at the more than 50-year-old company that employs about 500 at 12 stores.

“There’s no plan to slow down. We’re looking at some new projects in Manhattan,” Oliver said. “We’re Manhattan-focused. We never wanted to grow outside the city.”