Fanwood Larder Partners With 'Big Sexy Soups' & Wonder Delivery Service

FANWOOD, NJ — Fanwood Larder, also known as "The Closer Grocer," is expanding its business and now offers many of its goods on the Wonder delivery app.

The grocery is offering a selection of sandwiches, soups and groceries for delivery through Wonder food trucks — a company that began delivering food to people's doors in Westfield and has since expanded to many towns in the North Jersey area.

Now it's almost impossible to drive anywhere in the Union County area without spotting a purple Wonder truck.

Fanwood Larder also announced it is working with Big Sexy Soups to sell soups on the Wonder app. The soup company is owned by Cranford residents Frank and Christine Martino who make hand-crafted soups using high quality ingredients.

First founded in 2021, Big Sexy Soups functions as a delivery service in Union County. The company is the only service specializing in home delivery of soup in the state of New Jersey, according to the website.

Founder of Fanwood Larder Eva Pfaff said this partnership is beneficial to Big Sexy Soups because they do not currently have a retail presence. She also thought it was good idea to make it a soup and sandwich combo.

Pfaff explained that people will be able to order these soups and sandwiches for delivery on the Wonder app, similar to how Uber Eats or GrubHub works. This is separate from Wonder's service where they cook the food inside the truck.

Pfaff said she hopes to eventually expand Fanwood Larder's offerings on the app to basic pantry items like bread, eggs, milk, coffee and butter in the future.

She said the biggest benefit that this partnership offers is that fact that it targets a "highly localized audience" that is very food-centric.

"It's a local audience of people who have a real interest in food and an elevated interest in food," Pfaff said.

Pfaff emphasized that the grocery carries 30 local brands and takes pride in selling a vast array of fresh produce.

In addition, each Fanwood Larder sandwich sources local ingredients, such as a hot sauce used to make crema for the Wagyu roast beef sandwich, and jam to make the schmear for the truffled turkey.

Pfaff first opened Fanwood Larder in Nov. of 2019 after the A&P grocery store in town closed in 2015. As a result, Fanwood and Scotch Plains residents had fewer shopping options in town.

With the increase of people moving into Fanwood over the past several years, Pfaff was inspired to open the local grocery.

Read more: Check Out The Fanwood Larder: A Local Grocery That Needs Your Help

Pfaff said the store has been greatly impacted by inflation and she has seen some items increase in price by 30 to 40 percent.

"Prices have gone up dramatically and ... as an independent store, I don't get the pricing advantages that a chain gets," Pfaff said. "I don't have the volume discounts they get, so I'm paying top dollar."

Pfaff said she buys from a lot of the same suppliers that nicer supermarkets in the area do, but she charges less.

You can learn more about Fanwood Larder's offerings on their website, and check out the Wonder app here.