The empty space at 210 Amsterdam will soon be home to an H Mart.
The West 70s of Manhattan is the gold coast of grocery stores, with a Fairway, Citarella and Trader Joe’s a stone’s throw away from each other – and now, another heavy-hitter has entered the equation: H Mart. (Thanks to Leo for the tip.)
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We’re told an outpost of the cult-favorite Korean-style chain is headed to 210 Amsterdam Avenue (between West 69th and 70th streets) to replace the storefront left vacant by Rite Aid, which shuttered in November 2021 and has since closed its last store in the neighborhood.
ILTUWS has exclusively confirmed the 9,412-square-foot retail space was leased to H Mart a few months ago. An official opening date has not been disclosed, but we received an estimate of “late summer,” as “building a supermarket is a huge job.”
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The mega-market, founded in Queens in 1982, has eyed major metropolitan area expansion in recent years with branches opening in Flushing, Long Island City and East Rutherford, New Jersey since July 2022. Most recently, it was announced they found a new home on the Upper East Side in January after purchasing a retail condo at 223 East 86th Street for $8.7 million (which is reported to open within six months pending construction and improvements). As of now, the closest location in Manhattan is slightly uptown at 2828 Broadway (and 110th Street) on the ground floor of a Columbia University residential building.
(Google Maps)
It’s safe to say the love affair between New Yorkers and H Mart is the real deal, as they’re routinely praised for their impossible-to-find snack selection, authentic Korean specialities and (of course) array of instant ramen options which consistently trump the competition.
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H Mart has already been immortalized in Crying in H Mart, the 2021 memoir by indie pop band Japanese Breakfast’s lead vocalist, Michelle Zauner. The critically acclaimed book spent a whopping 60 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
H Mart’s annual revenue is listed as $1.2 billion.
Watch out for their frozen fish — from the 110th Street store I’ve learned that what comes with impossibly low fish prices is (a) mislabeled, misidentified fish and worse (b) it’s been frozen and thawed so many times, it literally disintegrated in the frying pan! Hope they’ve looked into this and it’s not business as usual. The variety of their packaged goods though is beyond compare. However, God knows what chemicals, ersatz ingredients, additives, and coloring agents (legal to use overseas but probably not in the U.S.) appear or don’t appear on the package labels.
South Korea has much stricter food safety standards than the US. Also, have you ever read the ingredient list on a bag of Doritos or can of soup in the US? The assumption that food from outside the US is of dubious origin or quality is xenophobic. South Korea as a nation is leagues more sophisticated, modern, and consumer-oriented than the US is. It’s no longer the poor, war-torn country of MASH era.
H-Mart caters to a largely Asian American clientele, and trust me when I say that no Asian American shopper would tolerate low-quality products esp. when it comes to meat and fish. The sushi grade fish is some of the best in the city outside of specialty markets. And the meat quality and cuts can’t be found anywhere else.
+1 stop creating fear mongering messages to dissuade the public. Try getting meat from Morton Williams. It’s miles worse.
Best and worst news ever!!!!!
Columbus in the mid-90s for groceries, with its own less-crowded Trader Joe’s plus a Whole Foods and a new 24-hour Key Food five minutes away on Amsterdam/96. Right in that triangle between those three stores is the grocery sweet spot. Fairway has a lot of problems and Citarella is way more expensive than Whole Foods, which isn’t that bad really.
When it comes to fish and meat they are the bestest! I hope the ‘bad reputation’ gets around because that means more selection for me (just joking!) I just went and bought a month’s worth of fresh salmon, which I freeze in individual portions. I love HMart!
The former Rite Aid space is too small for anything that goes into it to be called a “supermarket.”
Scott,
Go the the Morton Williams at 59th. and Columbus/9th. That’s about the same size, with higher ceilings.
I always stop there when I want to pay the highest prices possible for the worst selection.
G:
For some things M-W is consistently less than Fairway.
It doesn’t read like you’ve ever shopped there.
Judging by your defensiveness, sounds like you might work there — or own it. No need to get upset there, Chief, you have a right to love a mediocre supermarket. I
Right? Who needs another overpriced grocery in the area. Rite Aid at least had affordable options, and great deals on bottled water.
Agree. It was a Gristedes in the ‘90s, impossibly narrow aisles.
Cool.
Bettin’ Wakefern (Fairway) won’t make any effort to rise to the new challenge.
OMG OMG OMG! I hope they have the pick’n’mix frozen fish balls!
This is great news! The only downside of the 110th St. H-Mart is that it is nearly unshoppable from late Aug – mid. Sept when all the Columbia students pour back in and stock their fridges. Now there will be an alternative. I’ll likely stick with 110th because I know that old Rite Aid footprint and it’s likely going to be a mini-H-Mart like the one near NYU near St. Marks Place. Good for your ramen and gimbap cravings but lacking in some core ingredients to make Korean food.
I hope they don’t have “impossible to find snacks.” Who wants to waste time combing the aisles? Oh you mean “typically hard-to-find snacks,” got it! 🙂