Family owned and operated since the beginning.
The concept behind Brookhaven Marketplace started more than forty-five years ago when two immigrant cousins from Greece, John and Andy, went their separate ways as they began new lives in the Chicago area. Andy opened an open air produce market at Kedzie and Lawrence in Chicago and named it Andy’s Fruit Ranch. It featured fresh produce which Andy bought each morning before sun-up at the produce terminal at the South Water Market. Everything he sold was as fresh as if it was just picked, and with a low overhead, Andy’s pricing was out-of-this-world.
The store was not meant to be a full line grocery store. Produce was their specialty, and aside from some milk and a few fresh staples, that was all that you could buy at Andy’s.
John had a different interest in food... He had a passion for good deli meats, cheese, and smoked meats. He realized early on that everyone shopping for meat and cheese would also want fresh, home-baked bread to serve it on, so he decided to open an old world bakery/deli with imported foods from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. His store was located on Lake Street in Addison, IL, and it was called Minos Imported Foods.
The two businesses flourished and in time Andy had a son, Minos, and John had a son named John Peter (JP). Both boys decided to join with their fathers' businesses to assure a continued family presence in each store. Some years later at a typical family gathering, talk turned to business (as was often the case) and everyone in the family started to say it was time to look into expanding the businesses. Minos and JP were eager to expand and grow each store concept but the founders, John and Andy, were content to stay where they were. They wished to continue running their own unique stores, each one serving those customers they had come to know for more than 30 years.It’s not exactly certain just how the two sons came to the idea, but in time each realized that combining the concept of a fresh, expansive produce store well recognized for its variety, freshness, and low prices, with a fabulous fresh bakery and deli which also sold fresh meat, seafood, and international groceries, would be a venture that they could both prosper from. The family's first combination store was opened on November 10th, 2004, in the Brookhaven shopping center at the corner of Plainfield Road and Cass Avenue in Darien -- Thus the name Brookhaven Marketplace.
The new store was a smash hit from the start. Customers loved the fact that everything in the store was so fresh and affordably priced, and word spread to the point where shopping was occasionally a challenge as the aisles were jammed with customers. Three years later, on October 31, 2007, the Brookhaven team made a bold move out of their comfort zone and opened a second unit in a much larger store twenty miles to the south in Mokena, IL.
Locations
Becoming part of our communities has been the best experience any neighborhood, family owned business could ask for.
Employees
Our Brookhaven Family is always growing with employees that we are so grateful to have be a part of something that started decades ago.
Years
A long journey but it feels like we are just getting started. Seeing the next generation of shoppers visit our stores is the most rewarding.
