Tears were shed when Terranova Supermarket closed at the end of May, marking the end of 100 years in business.
People gathered on the sidewalk outside, and some crowded inside, watching as its proprietors locked the small grocery’s front door one last time and then walked out the back door and into retirement.
Less than three months later, some of the same people waited outside again under the oaks lining Esplanade Avenue to be the first customers at Terranova’s Meats. It’s a new butcher shop located in a portion of the old grocery in Faubourg St. John that represents the next-generation reboot of a treasured neighborhood institution.
Some snapped photos, a few brought flowers, many exchanged hugs and shook hands with Jennifer and Anthony Terranova, the couple who now run the shop, and Anthony’s parents, Karen and Benjamin Terranova, who might not be so fully retired after all.
The mood on opening day was jubilant. Too often, we have to watch as heritage businesses and pieces of community life slip away, whether through changes in industries or trends or the march of time.
But here is one that has built back on its own terms, rekindling a connection that runs through families and the city’s own past, and with some really delicious specialty meats.
‘A rebirth’
As a grocery, Terranova harked back to an old way of doing business, one at odds with the era of big box retail and contactless delivery. Customers and shopkeepers took time to chat about family, life, good food and the star-crossed Saints. Children were indulged (and sometimes corrected). It could seem like a visit as much as an errand. Time slowed down and felt well-spent…