EAST FALLOWFIELD — Holiday cheer is in the air at Triple Fresh Market.
In the heart of the historic Ercildoun Village in East Fallowfield Township, Triple Fresh is one of the oldest continually operated food establishments in America.
The market is open 365 days a year — even regardless of the weather. If there’s snow, plowers and emergency workers can count on Triple Fresh for a cup of coffee and artisan breakfast sandwich in the morning after working midnight shifts to clear roadways through the sunrise.
“We’re here for the community,” said Jim Petro III, vice president of Triple Fresh Market, a second-generation business. His father, Jim Petro Jr., purchased the store 35 years ago from Lloyd Webster in 1987.
Quaker abolitionist Gideon Pierce opened the country store in 1818 at 801 Doe Run Road. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Pierce was a member of the Fallowfield Meeting House, which still exists today, and remains located across the street from the local market.
Triple Fresh is not only a corner grocery store but also a local hub where community members stop by weekly or even daily. Some folks stop in for lunch, or to pick up an item for dinner. Other locals simply come in to grab a fresh hot cup of coffee and say, “Hi” to friends and neighbors.
Triple Fresh offers chef-prepared take home foods, organic grocery items, artisan gourmet cheese and many local and regional specialties.
For more than three decades, the Petros have modernized the market, pivoted with the changes of society, including during the shutdown last year, and risen to meet their customers’ market demands all while preserving the business as a small town 200-year institution and local landmark.
As an essential business, Triple Fresh could stay open despite a statewide stay-at-home order during the spring of 2020.
“We learned to be nimble. To be flexible in different directions — to respond in a moment’s notice,” Petro said.
This year, Petro knows well that there is a national trend in rising costs and also an inconsistency of certain products.
Indeed, the shutdown in 2020 has led to ongoing shortages and delays in the global supply chain, which continues to impact businesses in America from limited calendars at art stores to even the availability of various cup sizes and nondairy creams at Wawa.
Petro said a lot of suppliers began discontinuing certain products.
Local edge
One principle of Triple Fresh is to support fellow local businesses in the community. This includes farms based in Chester County as well as key staple vendors and producers in the Greater Philadelphia Region.
“We always want to work with local supplies,” Petro said.
And Triple Fresh has been doing just that more the last 35 years as a second-generation business.
For the holiday season, including this year’s Christmas menu, Triple Fresh is offering, and taking pre-orders, for turkeys from Loag’s Corner Turkey Farm of Elverson and McClure’s Baking Company of Gap. McClure, like Triple Fresh, is also a second generation Chester County business.
Triple Fresh has worked with Loag’s Corner and McClure for turkeys and pies during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season since the late 1980s.
There are many local and regional vendors that Triple Fresh has featured at the store for more than 20 years including Herr’s Foods of Nottingham and Frank’s Pork Products of Chatham, West Chester’s Lamont Coffee and Tea and Turk’s Head Coffee Roasters.
There are many more options for folks who visit Triple Fresh to purchase artisan goods while shopping locally.
Some of these featured businesses include Big Boize BBQ Sauce of Thorndale; OD’s Goodies, a maker of jarred garden goods, of Thorndale; Bailey’s Dairy of West Chester; Swarmbustin’ Honey of West Grove; Doe Run Farms, an international award winning cheese producer, of East Fallowfield; September Farms, a cheese company out-of Honeybrook; Tiers of Joy, offering Gluten Free desserts, of Kennett Square; Taste of Puebla, a vendor of salsa and chips, of Kennett Square; Bella Pizzelle of Morgantown; Suburban Brewing Company Honeybrook; and Animated Brewing Company of Coatesville.
Fresh deli
Fresh rolls from Philly are delivered to Triple Fresh daily.
Best sellers at Triple Fresh for deli orders, according to General Manager Mike Petro, are house roasted turkey hoagies, Angus beef cheeseburgers and cheesesteaks made from beef carved and chipped by the store’s butchers.
Some deli favorites at Triple Fresh are Jim’s Original Italian Hoagie, made the way Jim Petro Jr. taught his children growing up, The Fritz Burger, featuring Angus beef, fried onion rings, Dietz & Watson cheddar and house-made BBQ roast pork and The Turkey Junkie with house-made roast turkey, turkey bacon, cheddar with lettuce, tomato and whole grain mustard spread.
When Mike Petro became the general manager of the family business, he reimagined the menu, upgrading and creating new items that have become some of the customers’ favorites.
“This fell in line with adding the touch screen order system and online ordering — all part of upgrading our offerings to better serve our customers through the pandemic and beyond,” said Jim Petro III.
Evolve, thrive
In October, the Petro family launched the Ercildoun Brewing Company. Triple Fresh can now sell beer on-site. Brews include Doe Run Lager, an American style beer and Trolley Dodgers, a West Coast Pale Ale, among others.
Petro said random items aren’t delivered each week, adding that the company continues to adapt and pivot, always expecting the unexpected.
Working continuously with local vendors helps.
“We are happy to support them,” Petro said.
Ultimately, the secret ingredient to Triple Fresh’s success has been the ability of staff and team leadership to change direction at a moment’s notice.
“Being flexible is key,” Petro said.
“Being able to change directions, to listen to our customers, to be able to upgrade and move and pivot in a way that gets them what they need — in the most efficient way possible — and when they talk to us, really take that to heart. And really listen,” Petro said when asked for the greatest lesson he has learned as the vice president of Triple Fresh.
Of Triple Fresh’s patrons, he added, “They can rely on us.”
As a business that is open seven days a week, Petro said Triple Fresh is thankful to everyone on the staff who makes being open year-round, including on Christmas Day and most recently on Thanksgiving, possible. The market has around 40 employees.
This holiday season there is a food drive, with a donation bin on site, at Triple Fresh which is being organized by students of Pope John Paul II Regional Catholic School.
The students will be at Triple Fresh from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. December 12 to encourage donations from the community.
