It’s Looking Like Wegmans Will Open a Second Manhattan Location

The exterior of Wegmans in Brooklyn.

Sometime in the next couple of years, Wegmaniacs will have a what appears to be a second Manhattan location to visit, at 1932 Broadway between 64th and 65th streets, in what had been a Bed Bath & Beyond. First reported earlier this year, a spokesperson for Wegmans confirmed that it’s still early stages for the spot, with the crew clearing things out from the previous tenant.

In addition to the new location, the Astor Place Wegmans is pushing out to next year what was supposed to be a Japanese restaurant with champagne, oysters, and sushi, called Next Door at Astor Place, due to “significant changes in design and menu.”

Back when Wegmans first signed the long-term uptown lease, there was a question as to whether it would be another supermarket, or something else. A Wegmans representative told the Post, that the lease was “a personal investment.” The lease is, however, is guaranteed by Wegmans. And Gary Jacob, vice president of Glenwood Management, which owns the building, told the New York Post that Wegmans has been working on the space for months. “It will be a significant operation and include sushi,” he says.

Compared to the 87,000-square-foot Astor Place location and the 74,000-square-foot Brooklyn store, it is significantly smaller, at 58,000 square feet, though it’s still bigger than the average New York-sized Whole Foods, which hovers around 40,000 square feet. The first Manhattan store opened in October; the Brooklyn Navy Yard Wegmans was the first to debut in the city, rolling out four years earlier.

A few months after the Astor Place Wegmans opened, the seafood counter had been under fire, when restaurateur and sushi chef, Yuji Haraguchi, of Yuji Ramen/Okonomi in Brooklyn, and Osakana in the East Village, claimed the Astor Place location allegedly stole the concept for its newly opened fish market, Sakanaya. According to the lawsuit, Wegmans’ Sakanaya, allegedly bears an “uncanny and confusingly similar resemblance” to nearby Osakana. In the suit, filed in New York County Supreme Court, Haraguchi claimed Wegmans was in breach of a non-disclosure agreement and a non-compete agreement, signed on August 28, 2023, through Culinary Collaborations, Wegmans’s fish broker. Haraguchi posted the events through a Change.org petition. Eater has reached out to Haraguchi for updated information.

“At Wegmans, we are committed to offering our customers the freshest, highest-quality seafood in our stores,” a Wegmans spokesperson responded to Eater back when the lawsuit was filed. “We are aware that a lawsuit has been filed against us regarding our fish market, SAKANAYA, within our Astor Place store. We are confident that the claims against Wegmans are without merit.”

Meanwhile, the Wegmans restaurant in Astor Place that has yet to open is tweaking the concept. As a result of the changes in design and menu, “Next Door at Astor Place isn’t expected to open until sometime next year,” according to a spokesperson.

Today, there are Wegmans locations up to Massachusetts and as far south as Raleigh, North Carolina. Another Wegmans is set to open in Suffolk County. Wegmans is based in Rochester, New York, where the first store opened in 1916.