A new neighborhood grocer has opened its doors on North Broadway in Upper Nyack, tucked right beside the longtime local café that spawned it. Goosetown Grocer sits at 326 North Broadway, just over the New Jersey border in Rockland County, and it comes from the same family team behind La Promenade. The shop blends locally sourced goods and fresh seasonal produce with specialty items from independent brands, and it's open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The opening was first reported by Boozy Burbs, which noted the store's location directly next door to La Promenade, the gourmet bakery and café that has anchored the block since its Upper Nyack debut. The café location was an expansion for the company, which has a 40-year history, according to earlier reporting.
La Promenade was founded in Tenafly, New Jersey, where it has operated for more than four decades as a gourmet bakery, café and full-service catering business. Per the company's own account, it is managed by Lori Courtwright alongside her sons Julian and Corey Payraudeau. The Upper Nyack expansion traces back to a real estate deal: Payraudeau 95 LLC, owned by Courtwright, purchased the 7,160-square-foot building at 326 North Broadway for $1.44 million from Hartell's Wines & Liquors LLC, as the Rockland County Business Journal reported in May 2025. The site had previously housed delis, food markets and liquor retail before the sale.
A General Store Built on Local Collaborations
Goosetown Grocer brings together produce and offerings from Archive Home Store, Fort New York and Botanique Flower Parlour, according to the shop's own Instagram reel. The concept is designed to serve both Upper Nyack locals and the broader stream of Hudson Valley day-trippers who pass through the village's small commercial strip.
Archive Home Store brings its own history to the partnership. The design shop was founded in Nyack by prop stylists Bette Blau and Christina Lane along with interior designer Meryl Foster, first launching as a seasonal pop-up before growing into a permanent storefront, as Paste Magazine reported back in 2015.
La Promenade's Upper Nyack footprint has already earned local recognition. In December 2025, New York State Assemblyman Patrick Carroll named the café Small Business of the Month, singling out co-owner Julian Payraudeau and spotlighting the bakery's cronuts, coffee and prepared meals as part of a holiday-season celebration of Rockland County businesses, according to a video posted on Assemblyman Patrick J. Carroll's Facebook page.
Why the Name Goosetown
The new store's name is a direct nod to Upper Nyack's own history. The village earned its nickname Goosetown in the late 19th century, with one popular local story crediting Civil War Colonel Richard Vose, who reportedly kept a flock of geese at his Highmount Avenue estate and paraded them daily down to the Hudson River, according to Nyack News & Views. Vose was a wealthy rail spring inventor who had purchased farmland in Upper Nyack to build his riverfront villa.
The nickname eventually fed into a community rallying cry. Upper Nyack's slogan Goosetown Against the World originated in 1909 following a dispute between Empire Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 and officials organizing the Hudson-Fulton celebration parade, per the fire company's own history.
That fierce local identity dates back even further. Upper Nyack incorporated as its own independent village in 1872, according to the village's history as detailed on Wikipedia. Today Upper Nyack's Village Hall is next to the local firehouse, per the Village of Upper Nyack.
It remains a small place by the numbers. Upper Nyack's population is about 2,175 residents, making it a tight-knit Hudson Valley waterfront community that leans heavily on the small independent businesses lining its North Broadway corridor. Goosetown Grocer's arrival adds one more stop to that strip, giving residents and visitors alike another neighborhood grocery destination under a name that traces straight back to the village's goose-herding past.
