Glenville Got Its Grocery Store Back Last, and the Center Was Already Waiting for It

DeCicco & Sons has a signature tower, and Glenville now has one at the corner of Glenville Street and Glen Ridge Road. The store opened at 7:30 on the morning of Wednesday, September 9, with a ribbon cutting at 10:30. It is the family grocer's first store in Connecticut and its first outside New York. It fills roughly 20,000 square feet that had been the Glenville Stop & Shop.

The opening ended a wait of more than three years, and the order of what came before it explains the center as it stands this fall. A shopping center usually gets its anchor first and smaller tenants follow. Glenville's center filled in the other way around. While the supermarket space sat empty, a pizzeria, a taqueria, an ice cream shop and a salad and juice counter opened next door, and the road out front got a sidewalk and a new signal. When DeCicco & Sons opened, it joined a center that had already been rebuilt without it. Four weeks later, Abilis reopened a rebuilt shop up the street.

The Order Things Actually Happened

Stop & Shop's last day in Glenville was Thursday, June 15, 2023, according to CT Insider. Here is what opened in the center and around it between then and now.

Count the gaps. Luca's opened ten months after Stop & Shop closed. By the day DeCicco & Sons cut its ribbon, Luca's had been serving Glenville for almost two and a half years. Longford's and Green & Tonic had each been open about seventeen months. The grocery store came last.

The Post Office Building Did the Early Work

The four eateries share one structure. Greenwich Free Press noted at the DeCicco opening that the whole shopping center had changed since the former post office building was renovated. That building now holds Luca's Pizzeria and Italian Kitchen, Bluebird Taqueria, Longford's Ice Cream and Green & Tonic.

Between them they cover most of a day. Green & Tonic serves the salad and juice crowd, Bluebird does tacos, Luca's covers family dinner and Longford's is the stop afterward. Bluebird, which Patch reported opened December 9, 2024, is the work of chef Mike Pietrafeso. Longford's is known for small-batch, handmade ice cream, and its homepage is already showing its fall 2026 flavors.

One practical detail confuses map apps. The center's addresses are split across two streets. Bluebird lists 21 Glenville Street, while Green & Tonic and Longford's list 21 Glen Ridge Road. Photo captions from the DeCicco opening place the grocer's tower at 11 Glen Ridge Road, even though the store's own address is 21 Glenville Street. It is one parking area with several addresses, and any of them gets you there.

The Anchor Arrived Facing the Back

The approval for DeCicco & Sons was in hand long before the store opened. The Greenwich Beacon reported that Planning & Zoning unanimously approved the final site plan and special permit in October 2024. Two issues then held things up: a permit tied to the property owner and a retaining wall at the back of the building. First Selectman Fred Camillo told the Board of Selectmen on August 13 that both were resolved. The Beacon quoted him: "It's probably another month out, but it's coming. We promise you it will open up."

The retaining wall matters because of where the store now meets its customers. The main entrance is at the rear of the building, next to the primary lot, and signs direct drivers around back. A second entrance still faces Glenville Street. With the main door on the lot, the grocery and the post office building eateries now share the same parking.

Here is what's inside, from the store's own announcement:

• Fresh produce, deli, premium natural meats and seafood delivered daily
• An extensive cheese selection, fresh sushi, store-made baked goods and locally brewed coffee
• A fresh juice bar, a chopped salad station, and hot food and salad bars
• A craft beer department, which the company calls world-renowned
• Catering and event services
• A school rebate program the company plans to extend to Greenwich

Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. With Thanksgiving four weeks away, the store's homepage is promoting holiday catering. Its holiday menu lists Greenwich as an ordering location and includes cooked turkeys, dinner packages, sides and desserts. The menu page does not give a 2026 order deadline or pickup schedule, so it is worth calling the catering line at 914-775-8880 before counting on a particular day.

Some of the store's design is meant to feel specific to Greenwich. The company says it built "thoughtful nods to the community's rich history" into the space. The refrigeration system recaptures heat for use elsewhere in the building, and the store uses solar and efficient lighting.

Abilis Rebuilt on the Same Stretch

Four weeks after the grocery opened, Abilis Gardens & Gifts reopened at 50 Glenville Street on October 6. The old shop and greenhouse had a basic problem. As Greenwich Free Press reported, the greenhouse was not insulated for year-round use. The renovated building adds space for retail training, a workshop for handmade products, floral arranging, and accessibility the former building lacked.

The shop is also a job-training site. The Greenwich Sentinel noted that Abilis runs employment programs placing participants at the store, the Greenwich Library café, the Island Beach concession stand and other community locations. The reopening included a proclamation recognizing October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The store is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. With an insulated building, the shop and its training programs now run year-round, holiday season included.

The Road Out Front Changed Too

The street connecting all of this changed this year. The Glenville Corridor Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Project covers roughly 1,500 feet, from the Glen Ridge Road and Glenville Street intersection to Weaver Street. The Connecticut Department of Transportation awarded $6.5 million in state funds to cover the full cost, after years of delays and a funding shortfall. When the project was conceived in 2019, the town put daily traffic through the corridor at about 15,000 vehicles.

The change you can see most clearly is at Glenville Pizza, 243 Glenville Road. For decades, customers parked on a sloped shoulder along the curve there. In 2019 the spot had no sidewalk at all. By June 1, 2026, Greenwich Free Press photographed an extended curb, a grass strip and a new sidewalk where the cars used to sit. Parallel parking had moved west, and picnic tables had been added. The town scheduled overnight milling and paving for June 21 through June 25, with minor punch-list items and closeout to follow.

The new signal at Pemberwick Road and Glenville Road began flashing July 2 and went into full operation July 9, the Greenwich Beacon reported. Selectwoman Rachel Khanna said in May that she hoped synchronized lights would ease the bottlenecks once paving and re-striping were done, calling the project "a long time coming." The town's project page is the place to watch for the formal closeout.

That means the grocery reopened onto a corridor already rebuilt for people on foot. Most of that curb and sidewalk work was done before DeCicco & Sons had its final permits.

Late November, Starting From Glenville

Thanksgiving falls on November 26 this year. The Greenwich Reindeer Festival at Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North Street, returns the next day. It runs November 27 through December 24, with "We're Back" party days on Friday, November 27, from noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday, November 28, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Details are on the festival site.

"Let There Be Lights" switches on during Thanksgiving week in downtown Cos Cob and along East Putnam Avenue from Church Street toward Greenwich Avenue, and stays up through the end of January 2027, according to the Greenwich Beacon. Organizers had not named an exact switch-on day as of late October.

For the first holiday season since 2022, a Glenville household can buy the turkey, the sides and the cheese board on Glenville Street, then walk across the lot for tacos or a pint of Longford's.

If you would like to know how Greenwich's village centers like Glenville are changing block by block, Carla Kupiec keeps close track of them and is glad to talk it through. Schedule a private consultation.