The Fresh Market opens 48th Florida location

The Fresh Market has opened a new store in Lakewood Ranch, Fla., marking the first store for the specialty food retailer in the city and its 48th in Florida.

The new 24,034 square-foot store will offer full-service produce, deli, meat, seafood, bakery, and floral departments in addition to a variety of specialty products, including wine and cheese.

The new store will also feature the following:

• In-house smoked pit BBQ featuring fresh brisket, ribs and pork (The Fresh Market smokes its brisket overnight for a minimum of 12 hours over locally sourced wood)
• Hot and Fresh Pizza
• Large variety of scooping salads, olive bar and soup station
• Full and self-service coffee stations offering a variety of drink options
• Coffee café bar adjacent to the full- and self-service station, featuring iced and hot coffees, lattes, mochas, and hot tea from Republic of Tea in addition to The Fresh Market roasted beans available for purchase
• Fresh breakfast and pastry options in the coffee area along with fresh smoothies
• Bakery dessert options located within the store’s brand-new bakery walk-around case
• An expanded craft beer selection that includes local offerings
• Inside and covered outside seating areas

To celebrate the grand opening, the first 500 guests received a customized Lakewood Ranch shopping bag. The store also held a “bread breaking” ceremony, in addition to vendor sampling, specialty presentations, giveaways, live music performed by award-winning international concert cellist Steve Kramer, and a check presentation to Feeding Tampa Bay.

The Fresh Market currently operates 162 stores in 22 states across the U.S.

Click through the slides to see the store interior!