By Kathy Wang
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

MIDWOOD - Tuesday marked the grand opening of Pomegranate on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue L - all 20,000 square feet of it.

A mega-supermarket modeled on the success of gourmet food stores like Whole Foods, Pomegranate caters to elite food aficionados craving organic produce.

But there's a twist - located in the heart of a thriving Orthodox Jewish community, Pomegranate and everything available in the store is kosher-certified - hence its motto, "everything BETTER."

Rabbis are on-duty full-time in the store's three kitchens - one for dairy, another for meat and a third for parve (fish, vegetables, fruit and grains). Customers can have their pick of everything from freshly baked challah and homemade cheeses to aged prime beef-rib steaks to an olive bar and sushi bar.

Even its name is an apt one - the supermarket's namesake is a symbol of righteousness according to Jewish tradition because the fruit's supposed 613 seeds correspond with the 613 commandments of the Torah.

The independent store, dubbed the "kosher version of Whole Foods," has been in the works for the past two years under the direction of founder and owner Abraham Banda, a Hasidic Jew from Williamsburg who owns another grocery store on Long Island.

Occupying almost half a city block and the largest of its kind in the area, the supermarket also one-ups many other upscale markets in the city with its 50-car parking lot.

With its inception, however, the store serves up a controversy reminiscent of that surrounding Fairway's opening in Red Hook and Whole Food's still-tentative plans to settle in Park Slope. Midwood already has established mom-and-pop shops offering similar items, some of which have been operating for generations.

There are places like Glatt Mart on Avenue M, and then there's Mittleman Kosher Supermarket two blocks down. Both sides are downplaying the effects that Pomegranate will have on the scene. Locals, though, are eager to contribute their thoughts on popular Jewish blogs like JBlog Central.

"There is more than enough business, and this does seem to be a store aimed at a different market niche," wrote one blogger on Yeshiva World.

The recent slump of food markets such as Whole Foods and downturn in the economy has also thrown the financial outcome of Pomegranate, with its pricier gourmet goods, into question. “People are very cost-conscious so in this weak economy and with food prices already having soared 30 to 50 percent on everyday items, opening the Flatbush version of Zabar's will not go over too well once the uniqueness of this store will be experienced,� one blogger wrote on the Chaptzem Blog.

What will actually be the fate of this “new kiddush on the block�? We'll have to wait and see.

Pomegranate is located at 1507 Coney Island Ave. at Ave. L. For more information, call (718) 951-7112.

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