Renovated Dylamato’s Market to reopen in coming weeks | The Homepage

The storefront of Dylamato’s Market gets a new look with windows installed on Dec. 9, 2025. The neighborhood grocer closed in November to renovate and plans to reopen this month. Construction delays have held up the reopening that was originally planned for February. Photo by Dianne Shenk

By Joy Dore

The family-owned market on Second Avenue will soon have more room for Hazelwood residents to shop for fresh baked goods, snacks, sodas, fresh produce, pantry items, made-to-order sandwiches and local goods ranging from meat to honey to pottery. Dylamato’s Market at 5414 Second Ave. shut down in November for renovations and hopes to reopen this month.

Both improvements and expansions are in the works. A new facade will let people see into the store and make the inside brighter. The store will have 200 more square feet for merchandise. Much of that space will go toward refrigeration. Two new coolers will make room for more fresh produce. A second sandwich station will accommodate the lunch-time rush. A second bakery display case will entice customers with a sweet tooth, and two new freezers will hold more meat, fish, ice cream and other frozen foods.

The ceiling will also be higher and the lighting and HVAC systems will be improved. One of the walls was moved three feet to expand the store’s floor space. The floors and walls will have fresh finishes.

Some of these changes will also make the store more accessible to disabled shoppers. A ramp will be accessible by a new side door and the aisles will be wider and easier to navigate.

Part of the work that customers are unlikely to see is in the basement.

“We had been wanting to expand the store in 2023, and realized we didn’t have any space except the empty basement,” Owner Dianne Shenk wrote in a Feb. 5 email.

The renovated basement has a new ceiling, new walls, plumbing and lighting. It will house expanded storage for the market, along with the bakery that supplies the fresh baked goods sold in the store.

The store will continue to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on electronic benefits cards, often shortened to SNAP/EBT, after reopening. It will also keep accepting Food Buck Rx vouchers, and they will still offer a 50% discount on all fresh produce bought with SNAP, according to a Feb. 17 email from Ms. Shenk. She added that she hopes to bring back the table and chairs outside the store.

Years of planning

Most of the renovations have been done with grants from the Avenues of Hope program, and a state funding opportunity called the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative that funds businesses that support Pennsylvania growers and producers, Ms. Shenk said.

These changes have been a long time coming.

“I wrote the original grant application to Avenues of Hope in the summer of 2023, and the application to the PA Fresh Food Financing Initiative in October, 2024,” she wrote. “Since then we have been working through the process of getting permits and contracts in place before construction could begin in [December], 2025.”

Ms. Shenk said they will reopen this spring. Construction delays have moved the reopening date back from the initial goal of mid-February. The final reopening date will be set once the work is finished and all inspections cleared.

Dylamato’s first opened its doors in February 2016. Before moving into the storefront, Ms. Shenk sold wares from a farm stand selling produce on the 4800 block of Second Avenue starting in the summer of 2013. The Hazelwood neighborhood was classified as a food desert after the last grocery store Dimperio’s closed in 2009.

Joy Dore is a Hazelwood resident who is passionate about food and disability justice.