Stew Leonard’s Farm Fresh Food & Wine Store of Clifton: Fact Sheet
Opening Date: Friday, May 17, 2024
Size: 56,000 sq. feet
Location: Styertowne Shopping Center, 467 Allwood Road, Clifton, NJ 07012
Phone: 973-859-7701
Hours of Operation: Stew Leonard’s food store will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. Stew Leonard’s Wines & Spirits will be open
Monday-Saturday from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Online: www.stewleonards.com
See The STORE MAP
Interactive Design
Stew Leonard’s was hailed as the “Disneyland of Dairy Stores” by The New York Times and the Clifton store delivers! In addition to several classic Stew Leonard’s animatronic shows - including the Farm Fresh Five, the Avocado Girls, and assorted characters with push buttons - new shows include Stew’s Naked Cowboy (in honor of the company’s line of antibiotic and hormone free meats, called Stew's Naked) as well as an interactive, life-sized Divco milk delivery truck, modeled after the one Stew Leonard Sr. drove in the 1950s. Kids of all ages will also delight in a brand-new animatronic featuring pneumatic tubes where they can activate canisters to fly from one location of the store to another. The store additionally features reclaimed industrial and farm equipment throughout, further adding to the farmer’s market feel, and a Customer Service Policy Rock crafted from a reclaimed 6,000 lb. granite bridge ice breaker.
Bethy’s Bakery
Beth Leonard, a daughter of store founder Stew Leonard Sr., opened Stew Leonard’s first in-store bakery in the early 1980s. From the moment customers walk into the new store, they will be greeted by the aroma of fresh bread, warm cookies, hearth-baked bagels, and buttery croissants piping hot from the oven. Daily, the new store expects to make and sell almost 2,500 loaves of freshly baked bread.
Dairy
The Leonard family has been in the dairy business for four generations, so they know fresh milk. Stew Leonard’s milk comes straight from award-winning dairy farms in upstate New York and is free from artificial growth hormones (rBST) and antibiotics. Each dairy farm raises its own young stock, grows all the food fed to the cow, and has dedicated veterinarians who attend to the herd. Stew’s dairy section is also home to other award-winning dairy items, including a line of organic products, eggs, butter, yogurt, and more. Daily, the dairy section of the new store in Clifton expects to sell more than 500 half gallons of milk.
Butcher Shop
A team of seven butchers in the Clifton store will offer customers a wide selection of meats direct from ranchers in Kansas, Wyoming, and Nebraska, including grass-fed products and offerings from Stew Leonard’s antibiotic and hormone free Naked® line of beef, chicken, ham, and turkey. They’ll even custom cut your meat for free! Stew’s best-selling item from the butcher shop is the fork-tender filet mignon and during their first year of business, the Clifton butchers expect to sell about 75,000 pounds of it.
Deli
The star of Stew Leonard’s deli is undoubtedly the handmade mozzarella! Stew Leonard’s deli team makes mozzarella, selling more than 500 pounds of it every week, as well as creamy burrata fresh daily. The team also regularly visits cheese mongers in Wisconsin, New York, and Italy. Customers will enjoy a selection of both American and international specialty cheeses – including Parmigiano-Reggiano imported direct from Italy and New York State cheddar – as well as deli meats, including Stew’s own line of roasted deli products.
Produce
Stew Leonard’s buys local fruits and vegetables whenever possible, including corn, heirloom tomatoes, and squash from Donaldson Farms in Hackettstown, N.J., as well as blueberries and peaches from D’Ottavio Farms in Vineland, N.J. Every day, the store will receive truckloads of fresh produce direct from the farm, and customers will be able to choose from dozens of varieties of just-picked fresh fruits and vegetables from 75 farms throughout New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
Fish
With more than 30 varieties of fresh caught seafood as well as a selection of locally caught sea scallops, flounder, swordfish, and tuna from Viking Village in Barnegat Light. In addition to live lobsters from Stonington, Maine, the fish department also offers wild shrimp from Florida, King Crab Legs and King Salmon from Alaska, and salmon from the Gulf of Maine.
Grocery
Stew Leonard’s grocery department offers a mix of national brands, private label items, and local favorites. Local New Jersey items that can be found in grocery and throughout the store include Colavita Olive Oil, with headquarters in Edison, Jersey Italian Gravy, made in Oakland, and CiboVita nuts from Totowa.
Mrs. Leonard’s Kitchen
Supervised by chefs who have trained at restaurants nationwide, the heart of the new store’s open concept kitchen is a hearth-like stone wall. The kitchen also boasts ovens, pizza ovens, grills, a wok, a rotisserie, and an open prep area for Stew’s culinary team of 41 as they prepare 200+ foods to-go. Many of our customers’ most loved recipes – including our meatballs, award-winning soups, and Bolognese sauce – come directly from the recipe box of Mrs. Marianne Leonard, wife of store founder Stew Sr. Mrs. Leonard’s Kitchen also features grab-and-go sushi as well as hot food and salad bars.
Stew Leonard’s Wines & Spirits
Styertowne Shopping Center is also the new home of Stew Leonard’s Wines & Spirits of Clifton, which will move from its current location at The Promenade Shops At Clifton to the interior of the Clifton food store, offering shoppers convenient, one-stop-shopping for fresh food as well as more than 1,200 wines, 1,100 spirits, and 350 beers. (Subject to New Jersey Alcohol Beverage Control approval.)
Community Giving
The Leonard family has a long history of giving back to the communities it serves through the donation of day-old baked goods to local food pantries, gift cards to local 501(c)(3) charities, and an annual Turkey Brigade, which donates thousands of turkeys every Thanksgiving to community organizations. Since the opening of Stew Leonard’s Wines & Spirits in Clifton in 2009, the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation has donated more than $50,000 to the Clifton Boys & Girls Club to support low cost or free swim lessons for children. As part of the new store’s grand opening festivities, Stew Leonard’s in Clifton will employ a special “round up at the register” feature through May 31, 2024, with proceeds benefitting the Clifton Boys & Girls Club.
Energy Efficiency
Stew Leonard’s in Clifton is the Leonard family’s most environmentally friendly store ever built, with a brand-new refrigeration system and energy efficient LED lights.
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