Fruits and vegetables are what established us and remain our primary strength, but in 1980 we emerged as the city’s most important purveyor of cheese. Literally all of the world’s most significant cheeses made their American debut here at Fairway under the tutel- age of Steven Jenkins, author of Cheese Primer
(Workman), the 1996 James Beard Award-winner (fifth printing).

What has set Fairway apart from every other NYC specialty food store, several of which are justly famous in their own right, is that we import directly numerous highly significant foodstuffs that are available only at Fairway. We have demonstrated time and again an uncanny ability at finding thrilling artisanal foodstuffs in Europe and North America, and with our buying power we are able to by-pass importers and distributors, thereby keeping costs down on these items. Our customers, over 100,000 per week, know that if they make a purchase at Fairway, they’re paying not just a fair price, but the lowest price we can possibly manage.

Obviously we travel extensively in pursuit of foodstuffs that will further establish us as the primary mover and shaker in the specialty food business. It is not as if these wonderful things show up unannounced in hopes we will clutch them to our collective bosom. We learned long ago that it requires persistence and serendipity in addition to being "out there." For us, the process is an unfettered joy – the thrill of finding something, the satisfaction of knowing how important our support is to each of our artisanal food producers, and the pride we feel when yet another pioneering effort is met with such tumult and commercial success. Do we get publicity? Hardly a week goes by that New Yorkers don’t read in a magazine or newspaper that Fairway has done it again.

Can you purchase specialty foodstuffs and cheeses on-line? Sure. Numerous Web sites. But we’re astonished at how pedestrian the choices are, and at the extortionate prices attached. Fairway is only offering the winners, folks. Just the stuff we ourselves take home for our own culinary lives, which, after our friends and family, is the only life worth living. Here at Fairway, if you can’t eat it, what’s the point?