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GOURMET NEWS OCTOBER 2019 www.gourmetnews.com RETAILER NEWS 9 Zia Pia Continued from PAGE 1 learn in Italy. "I lived in Milan and then worked for six months in Turin," she said. "My family was Italian, and I wanted to learn that language, and I just loved the culture and the language and the food and wanted to spend time over there." After graduation, she went to work in New York City, coming home in the evenings to shed thoughts of her corporate job by daydreaming about the business she planned to start one day – drawing up business plans for an Italian im- ports business and tasting them in her mind. "This is something that I've always loved as long as I can remember," she said. "It's some- thing that I've always wanted to do." After she had a daughter and moved to Charlotte, she decided to get serious about launching her business in her new city. "Char- lotte is a great place to grow Zia Pia. In addition to the many Italian foodies, there's a growing native Italian population in Charlotte as well. A lot of Italian companies have been opening headquarters in this area. Charlotte also has a lot of peo- ple who have moved from north- eastern cities where they have immigrant roots. They bring that culture down here with them." She named her nascent business Zia Pia, after her aunt Pia, of Orvi- eto, Italy. "I named her after my aunt be- cause she was like a grandmother to me," Zabel said. "When I lived in Italy, I traveled and stayed with her. I learned so much from her about food, and about life." When she was ready, Zabel got in touch with an Italian friend who was a chef and had similar ideas about the types of foods that ought to find their way into the American market, and they started sourcing products. "I wanted to start out and see how it worked," she said. "I wanted to explore what I could do on my own, as an independent business connected to Italy." After a couple of years of quietly estab- lishing an online and local wholesale busi- ness, Zabel decided to open a small retail presence in Charlotte, beginning with a stall in the 7th Street Public Market, a food hall featuring all local vendors with a mis- sion to celebrate the food culture of the Carolinas and to promote high quality, fresh and affordable foods. The little stall provided some visibility for Zia Pia and helped market the online business and cre- ated synergy for wholesale. Eventually, a larger space opened up that had a kitchen in it, so that Zia Pia is able to cook with its authentic products as well as to offer them from retail shelves. Zia Pia has about 750 square feet of space, with its service counter taking up about half the space and generating about two thirds of the space's revenue. Guests order at the counter and take their food to the tables in the market's common area. "It's super ca- sual counter service," Zabel said. "An easy and accessible way for everyone to experi- ence authentic Italian flavors. We get a lot of diversity of people who come into the market." A small space redesign will open up space for a retail tasting counter, and Zabel is hoping to have that completed ahead of the holiday season. "The foodser- vice component completes the cycle," Zabel said. "We're allowing our customers to directly experience the authentic foods and flavors from our kitchen." GN Marky's On Madison to Offer Caviar in NYC Storefront Marky's Group, a vertically integrated 35- year-old specialty retail and caviar business based in Florida, has opened its first brick- and-mortar Manhattan location in New York City just blocks away from the Metro- politan Museum of Art. The new Marky's, located on 1067 Madison Avenue (at 81st Street), features a retail gourmet storefront, Marky's On Madison, as well as an adjoin- ing caviar bar experience, H SO. Offering the world's first-ever "farm-to- spoon" caviar concept, Marky's sells the freshest caviar within days of harvest deliv- ered directly from its own U.S. aquafarm; signature caviar flights will highlight do- mestically-raised, but purebred, Russian and Siberian Osetra, Sterlet and Sevruga. In addition to its own American caviar, Marky's also offers fine, sustainable and high-quality caviar from around the world with traditional caviar service and pre- mium, international flights. By the fall of 2019, Marky's will also be the only cafe in New York and U.S. to offer purebred beluga caviar via its own aquafarm. During the day, shoppers have the option to purchase gourmet products from caviar and foie gras to Italian cheeses and truffles as well as jamon iberico, stracciatella, salumi, burratina, bottarga, gourmet sea salt and more. Those looking for a taste of their future purchases can opt to dine at fine casual caviar bar H SO (named for the beluga sturgeon species), helmed by Eleven Madison alumnus Executive Chef Buddha Lo. New products available for purchase include Sevruga Caviar. Marky's is the only company farming Sevruga do- mestically at its Sturgeon Aqua Farm in Florida. This Sevruga will be sold in the Upper East Side location. Marky's will also be offering Caviar But- ter prepared with French butter made with cow's milk at Marky's Florida facility. The butter is warmed gently and Osetra caviar from Israel is folded into it. The mixture is a solid 35 percent Osetra and 65 percent butter, as the perfect mix. Available at Madison and Florida locations, as well as newly available on Amazon. Beluga Sturgeon meat will also be available for purchase within the shop. As a boneless, white fish that is delicate and nutritious, and a similar texture to tuna, the royal fish meat is an exceptional and unique item to smoke, bake, grill or fry. This hard-to-find delicacy will also be featured in the reinvented B.E.C., a beluga, egg and caviar dish that's offered on the new brunch menu of H SO, the store- front's speakeasy restaurant. GN Albertsons Companies Offers Easy Opioid Drug Disposal Option As part of its commitment to prevent opi- oid misuse, Albertsons Companies now of- fers DisposeRx, an at-home, eco-friendly medication disposal service, at its nearly 1,800 pharmacy counters in 34 states and Washington, D.C. Albertsons Cos. banners with pharmacies offering DisposeRx in- clude Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel- Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs. DisposeRx packets contain a proprietary powder that is activated by water. Patients pour water into the medication vial with the leftover pills, add the DisposeRx powder, re- place the cap and then shake the vial for 30 seconds. The powder forms a thick gel, making the pills unusable and inaccessible. The vial can then be safely discarded in the trash. Independent environmental labora- tory studies have concluded that the Dis- poseRx gel is non-toxic and non-hazardous. "Effective, eco-friendly home disposal of leftover opioids and other medications is a health and safety goal that we share with our customers," said Mark Panzer, Senior Vice President of Pharmacy Health and Wellness, Albertsons Companies. "Patient education is an important part of our mis- sion, and pharmacists are on the front lines when it comes to preventing the misuse of opioids. DisposeRx makes at-home medica- tion disposal for patients or their caregivers easy and convenient. In less than a minute, patients can prevent their leftover opioids from being diverted in their communities, prevent accidental poisonings in the home, and avoid polluting the water supply." "For more than 80 years, the Albertsons Cos. family of stores has shown unwavering commitment to providing quality products and superior service for its millions of cus- tomers in thousands of communities across our country," said William Simpson, Presi- dent of DisposeRx. "By offering DisposeRx packets and education at their pharmacy counters, Albertsons Companies Pharmacies further illustrate that dedication by working to prevent opioid abuse and misuse and keeping customers and communities safe." It is standard practice for Albertson Cos. pharmacy teams to discuss the risks asso- ciated with opioid and other controlled substance prescriptions with patients. Now, they will also tell patients about how Dis- poseRx works. Patients do not need a pre- scription to obtain DisposeRx in Albertsons Companies pharmacies. Offering DisposeRx is just one of the ways Albertsons Cos. is combatting the opioid epi- demic. To date, more than 1,700 of its phar- macies across 30 states have pharmacists trained to administer naloxone (Narcan ® ), a medication used to reverse the impacts of an opioid overdose. Moreover, over 4,500 Al- bertsons Cos. pharmacists are trained to counsel patients on the benefits, availability, and eligibility of naloxone therapy. GN EU Tariffs Continued from PAGE 1 cheese, but I think it will overall negatively affect our sales total." Jessica Affatato, Founder of Harbor Cheese and Provisions, agreed with Scardello in her comment to the USTR. "These items are economic engines for our businesses en- gines that cannot be easily replaces [sic] or replicated by domestic fare. Our domestic in- dustries are not robust enough to fill this gap," she wrote. "Imported goods help pad our margins SO we can buy domestic goods. You will hurt small farmers, small retailers, jobs will be lost and livelihoods seriously hampered." According to a joint statement from U.S. alcohol trade groups to the USTR, the tariffs threaten at least thousands of jobs across the U.S. in that industry alone. Most retailers are taking a wait-and-see approach, said Eddie Dick, Grocery Man- ager at Rincon Market. "Even if I knew for certain, which I don't, whether these tariffs are coming down the line, I don't have the resources to stockpile 12 months worth of pasta or whatever it is," he said. "Tying up cash flow into something like that, I can't do that. A lot of these specialty food prod- ucts are perishable anyway, so what's the max I can keep on hand? Three months? Six months? Maybe a year? Not to be to- tally fatalistic, but I just don't have a lot of options. Whatever does happen, I'll roll with it and, well, adapt." GN

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