Jon Bon Jovi Surprises Shoppers At Long Island Supermarket

Rock star Jon Bon Jovi made a surprise appearance Saturday, August 4, at a grocery store on Long Island, New York, to promote the rosé company he started with his eldest son.

Morning shoppers were stunned at the Stew Leonard’s store in Farmingdale when the “It’s My Life” singer and his 23-year-old son, Jesse Bongiovi, stopped by for a visit.

“You never know who’ll you bump into shopping at [Stew Leonard’s],” the grocer said on Instagram as a caption to four photographs from the pop-up event.

While there, the handsome Bon Jovi, wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans, kept his sunglasses on as he took photos with fans and signed bottles of Diving into Hampton Water, the rosé brand he launched this year with his equally-attractive son.

Nine-year-old Sami Lapidus, who was wearing a Bon Jovi T-shirt, told Newsday that her favorite singer shook her hand. She cried “happy tears” after the encounter.

Lou Diaz told Newsday that he was at the store looking for cookie dough. “We talked to the lady over there, and she said, ‘Oh, Bon Jovi’s here,’ and we didn’t believe her,” he said. “All of a sudden, everyone just started running. We were just trying to catch him wherever he went.”

President and CEO Stew Leonard Jr. was on hand to show off a 19.5-pound lobster that he named “Bon Jovi” in the musician’s honor.

“He loved that,” Leonard said to Newsday about the singer’s reaction to having a crustacean named after him. “[It was a] big, fun day at Stew Leonard’s.”

The father and son duo were given some choice tomahawk steaks from the store’s Butcher Shoppe for their visit, according to Eyewitness News.

TMZ reported that word quickly spread around town and people started showing up at the store “in droves,” so the police were called in to control the crowd.

The 56-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee seemed to have first formed an alliance with Stew Leonard’s back in June.

On June 27, the supermarket posted a video of Bon Jovi on Instagram in which he excitedly showed off the free ice cream gift certificate he received from the store.

The following day, June 28, mascot Stewie the Duck posted a snapshot on Instagram of the smiling philanthropist reading Swim Time, which is one of the children’s books written by Leonard and his wife, Kim, about swimming and water safety.

In 1989, the couple lost their 21-month-old son in a drowning accident. They started the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation in memory of the boy to raise water safety awareness and education.