Best Market takes over in Uncasville

New grocery store to open at former site of Tri-Town Foods

Montville — Best Market, a family- owned grocery chain based in Bethpage, N. Y., will be opening a new store in Uncasville where Tri- Town Foods previously had been located.

The newly refreshed, 20,000square-foot store at 601 Norwich-New London Turnpike will open Friday.

Jonathan Sender, vice president of advertising and marketing for Best Market, said the Uncasville store will be the company’s 19th. The store already has hired about 60 employees, many of them previously workers for Tri-Town.

“Best Markets focus on fresh organic and conventional produce ... quality custom-cut meat, store-baked and premium bakery, farm direct dairy, gourmet sandwiches, fresh baked pizza and large frozen and grocery sections,” Sender said in an email.

The store also will include high- end meats, specialty cheeses and an olive bar.

The store manager will be Scott Lee, described as an experienced retailer deeply rooted in the community. Hours of the store will be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.

“We are a full service supermarket with a few surprises in every store,” Sender said.

For instance, Best Market’s store in Harlem, N. Y., features a woodsmoked barbecue department because of local interest. The barbecued meats were so popular that they have been incorporated in four other stores.

Best Market does not have a customer-loyalty program or require club membership to receive deals, Sender said. Special in-store promo-

tions over the next few weeks will help introduce the community to Best Market, he added.

Best Market has only one other Connecticut store, in Newington. The chain, celebrating its 20th year under the ownership of the Raitses family, also has one store in New Jersey, with the rest being concentrated in New York.

“It grew from a small fruit and vegetable stand operated by Ben Raitses, the father of the current owners,” according to a history of Best Market on its website, www.best-- market. com. “The business expanded into a storefront produce store and, later into the first Produce Warehouse in 1994.”

Tri-Town, which has other local stores in East Lyme and Colchester, announced last month that it would be leaving its Uncasville location. The new store has retained the previous phone number, (860) 848-0350.

The new Best Market is one of only two supermarkets in Montville, which also hosts a Stop & Shop in the Montville Commons plaza.