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Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace is getting ready for its closeup in Bohemia.
The rapidly growing Italian specialty-grocer will be hosting a grand opening bash this Friday, Nov. 14, at Sayville Plaza on Sunrise Highway.
The new 40,000-square-foot supermarket, which fills the long-vacant Babies “R” Us space, marks another step in the East Meadow-based company’s expansion across Long Island and the Tri-State area. The store will feature an in-house bakery, café, deli, butcher shop, cheese shop and a wide selection of Italian imports and prepared foods.
Founded in 2001 by brothers Carl and Phillip DelPrete with partner Tom Barresi, Uncle Giuseppe’s has grown steadily with laser focus on what the founders envisioned nearly 25 years ago as an “Italian-market experience” for shoppers.
“We made a conscious decision to create an Italian-centric market, reminiscent of the experience we had as kids where we grew up — the Little Italys of the world, Brooklyn and the Bronx,” Carl DelPrete previously told GLI.
Things really took off in 2005 with the Smithtown store, Uncle Giuseppe’s second location, which introduced many of the experiential touches the marketplace is now known for.
“Long Island is our home,” the company’s president, Mike Nelson, stated earlier this month. “In the year ahead, we plan to welcome 1,000 new team members as we open stores in Bohemia, Greenvale, and Levittown”
The store opens to the public at 7 a.m. the day of the grand opening, with a morning of events and special attractions that include a 900-pound piece of provolone cheese from the company’s purveyor in Italy, along with 200 turkeys being donated to Island Harvest Food Bank, an Uncle G’s charitable partner.
A new chapter for Sayville Plaza
The Bohemia site is expected to further reinvigorate the sprawling shopping plaza — once beleaguered by big box bankruptcies — by bringing a hometown favorite to a key stretch of Sunrise Highway.
The company’s store model emphasizes fresh-made pasta and mozzarella, an espresso bar, premade meals, handmade candies and confections, and an expanded natural-foods section — alongside traditional grocery offerings.
For Uncle Giuseppe’s, it’s all about the experience. Hence the free tastings and mic’d-up crooners who travel the aisles on weekends, belting out the classics from Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bobby Darin.
“You walk in and see the candy section, the chocolate fountain,” DelPrete said. “You hear the music. You smell garlic and fresh bread. And then you taste …”
Then you come back.
More stores on the way
The Bohemia grand opening is part of a multi-store rollout for Uncle Giuseppe’s.
A 56,000-square-foot market opens in early 2026 at Wheatley Plaza in Greenvale. Later that same year, a Levittown store is expected to open in the former King Kullen on Hempstead Turnpike.
Uncle G’s currently operates 11 markets across New York and New Jersey.
Bohemia will mark the 12th.
The company is also exploring opportunities beyond the tri-state area. The idea would be to bring the Italian-market experience to new regions across the country, Greater Long Island previously reported.
Top: Artisan cheese sampling is part of the Uncle Giuseppe’s experience, at all locations. (Credit: Nick Esposito/GLI file photo)
