Brick Grocery is a Gourmet Specialty store featuring gourmet olive oils, vinegars, spices, cheeses, Italian deli meats, imported chocolates and desserts, fresh pasta and more! The new store is located in Egg Harbor Rd Washington Township NJ, in the “Rita’s Water Ice” shopping center.
Brett and Nick are cousins who started Brick Grocery as an online business just a couple years ago, and with their early success they’ve decided to branch out into direct retail by opening a store in their hometown!
That’s right, both Brett and Nick live in Washington Township, in developments right off of Egg Harbor Road! We’ve been getting a lot of these Washington Township resident success stories lately and it truly says a lot about the people and how they feel about the town!
And the name “Brick”? It’s a mix of their two first names, Brett and Nick. Clever!
If you are seeing this on Sunday, they are open until 2pm Sundays. The rest of the week their hours are 10am-6pm.
Keep scrolling down for more photos and the story behind this new and successful business!
Brick Grocery: The Products
The new Egg Harbor Road store is bright and modern, and the food items are displayed almost like a fine art museum!
The store is divided front to back in two sections… olive oils, vinegars and seasonings are in the front, and back section is the refrigerated products such as pasta and Italian meats.
Nick gave us a tour of the product selections… the vinegars, olive oils and more.
They carry a wide variety of brands and products, and now they even have their own brand of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil… Fludino!
Fludino Fine Foods comes in a beautifully distinctive packaging, and right now there 6 different varieties… including a white balsamic and a rosé wine vinegar!
Another of Nick’s favorite white vinegars is the Terre Bormane Aulente… which is just one of the the many varieties they have at Brick Grocery.
Dessert items include cake slices from New York City’s famed Ferrara Bakery!
An interesting story around the product line Saint Lucifer, which they carry and are a key distributor for.
TikTok is rapidly becoming the leading social media platform, and is geared towards “viral” posts and reactions.
Well a food content TikTok’er made a salad video. A short 30 second clip of how she makes her salad, and she included Saint Lucifer spices and oils in the salad.
The video quickly gained 100s of thousands of views, and when I just checked her profile she has several videos featuring Saint Lucifer seasonings getting huge amount of views… a few over a MILLION VIEWS.
And guess where many people looking to buy Saint Lucifer products ended up? Brick Grocery!
The back section of Brick Grocery takes on a old world brick decor, and as mentioned features their refrigerated products.
One of the first things to grab your attention is the refrigerated glass case featuring fresh pastas!
Brick Grocery has partnered with the Vera Pasta Company of West Chester PA to bring freshly made, high quality pasta to Washington Township and the 42Freeway area!
It’s just like what Grandma would make.. but today, we don’t always have the time! Bucatini, Caserecce and more!
Next to the pasta display case are the cheeses; Smoked gouda, mozzarella, goat cheese, riccotta and more!
Nick tells us that on Sundays they have South Philly’s famous Sarcone bread… and for the upcoming holiday season they will be adding SEAFOOD!
Brick Grocery: The Story
I had a really nice chat with owners Brett and Nick on Saturday, their official opening day. They gave me a lot of information on the business and their growth… and well, maybe I talked even more about myself and my blog goals! Sorry guys, ha!
I genuinely love hearing stories of local people creating small businesses, putting everything on the line… and being successful!
So Nick has been in the food industry for years, and Brett was in retail banking.
They started Brick Grocery initially as a “side gig”. Working their day jobs and then spending 10-15 hours or more starting up Brick Grocery as an online only business.
Online you can order from their store directly, or find their products on Amazon.
At the end of 2019 Brett tells me that the Corporate life was wearing him down, so with a few thousands in sales a month from their part-time online food business, and believing if they could put more time into Brick Grocery it could become full time careers for them… the leap was made to work Brick Grocery fulltime!
And almost as soon as they opened, Covid spread across the world! Which should’ve been doomsday for a very new business!
2020 was a scary time for all businesses, but every dark cloud has a silver lining.
For Brick Grocery, being online sales at the time, they saw an increase on orders as people were not shopping in stores as much in 2020, if not at all!
And as I mentioned, the recent viral TikTok videos for Saint Lucifer has also been a big bonus.
It seems the biggest transition in starting this business was with Nick, as he was in the white collar banking world… but it’s clear he already has no regrets for leaving the Corporate world behind and striking out on their own!
Washington Township Economic Development
In chatting with the cousins, they shared how difficult it was for them to find a location to open the store. Mainly it seemed most landlords weren’t willing to take a chance on a new business.
So Brett and Nick found their way chatting with Nancy Mozzachio, who is Washington Township’s Economic Development Consultant.
They raved about how instrumental she was in them opening up the store. From helping find a location, and chatting with landlords assist in getting a lease signed.
I do know of Nancy and her role in the town, but I have not met her yet.
So trust me when I say, it was a genuine and unsolicited compliment from the Brick Grocery team. “We wouldn’t have been able to open without her help”
So if you are looking to open a business in Washington Township, maybe reach out to Nancy. The town maintains a website page for Economic Development, with contact information.
Links and Location
Be sure to stop over and check out this awesome new business… owned and operated by Washington Township residents!
Brick Grocery Retail Store
288 Egg Harbor Road
Washington Township NJ 08080
856-725-4603
Hours: Hours are updated on their Facebook page
Open every day 10am to 6pm, except Sundays which are 9am to 2pm!