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Business & Tech

Culinary Schooling and a Truck Accident: The History of Nyack's Newest Grocer

Chef's Market offers locally-produced food and a place to dine.

Hey, Nyack—don't say you have to go a distance to find an ideal supermarket.

There's a spot nearby which doesn't necessitate car travel and dealing with a supermarket crowd—and the selection is fresh and from your own backyard.

Jeff Sapounas, owner of Chef's Market, has just about everything you need. Located at 20 South Broadway in Nyack, Sapounas began plans for the business in 2005.

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"This was [originally] the Tappan Zee Playhouse," he said. "The building was knocked down and our family bought the property."

But the trip up to present day was long one. A 1995 Culinary Institute of America (Poughkeepsie campus) graduate, Sapounas worked as a busboy and server throughout high school. After his graduation from CIA, he was immediately employed by Restaurant Lutece, a French eatery on Manhattan's east side, where he did food prep and learned more from the other cooks. In 1998, he ascended to Sous Chef.

"I spent lots of years in the restaurant business," he recalls.

His initial venture into establishment ownership met a gloomy fate. When he tried to open a Main Street restaurant in 2002, he was just five weeks from opening day when an 18-wheeler lost control and plowed into his almost-completed business.

Goodbye building, goodbye restaurant—and time to slightly switch gears. Sapounas was still in the food business, but headed into the retail end with Balducci's Market and Whole Foods in Manhattan, all the while envisioning, planning and eventually building Chef's Market.

You can tell he wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

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"In my honest opinion, there was no personality [in other markets I worked at]," he said. "We try to be more of a neighborhood market."

"More" is the key word here. Chef's Market stocks prepared foods, fresh seafood, meats cut fresh in their butcher area, homemade baked goods, a variety of cheeses, produce and fruit, everyday grocery items and specialty products, including organically grown.

And you can also enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week.

Nyack's response has been a good one. 

"[I see the] same people every day," Sapounas said." We provide every day necessities, so you have to be open all the time."

Being a local is important to Jeff Sapounas, as well. He's lived in Nyack with his wife Lauren since 1993, and they are now raising their family there.

"The fact that I can walk two blocks [to work] says something," he said. "I'm vested in the community."

"Everything comes from here," he continued, noting his involvement with local farmers' markets and farms all over the state. "Everything comes off of our knives, all made in house, and we have lots of experienced people doing the cooking."

"This is fine food," he added.

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