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GOURMET NEWS APRIL 2017 www.gourmetnews.com Retailer News RETAILER NEWS 9 BRIEFS Phoenicia Specialty Foods Brings International Flavors to Houston BY LORRIE BAUMANN In a society that's deeply conflicted about much that's happening in the Middle East and its potential repercussions for the American homeland, Houston grocer Phoenicia Specialty Foods offers a yummy reminder that we're all on this planet to- gether and our respective cultures have much to offer each other. Phoenicia Spe- cialty Foods operates in two Houston loca- tions, a 90,000-square-foot west side location that's like a ware- house for international foods, and the newer 28,000-square-foot loca- tion in downtown Hous- ton. The family behind the two stores (retail and wholesale operation), and the original restau- rant: parents Zohrab and Arpi Tcholakian, who started the business by opening the Phoenicia Deli in 1983, brother Raffi, who oversees the company's wholesale business and much of its import operation at the Phoenicia Foods Westside location, brother Haig, who curates the stores' beer and wine offering and is half the marketing team along with sister Ann- Marie, who also manages the downtown store, also still operate the original restau- rant that's the particular province of the matriarch of the family. "It's in our blood, and we are cut from the same cloth in re- gards to our work ethic, passion and detail- oriented nature. Mom is the matriarch of the restaurant, Arpi's Phoenicia Deli restau- rant, which is where it all began. She's def- initely the most famous out of all of us. Everybody recognizes her because she's al- ways in the restaurant," says Ann-Marie. "My parents don't want to retire; they love the business; they love the energy. They re- ally enjoy providing these services and these hard to find specialty items to the community, and also having the opportu- nity to interact with friendly faces. Dad is always in the store teaching employees and customers about the products' cooking techniques and origins." The stores' product mix includes more than 50,000 SKUs representing products from more than 50 countries and is focused on international specialty items, especially Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Eu- ropean specialties. Many of the bakery items and prepared foods are produced in house, with some commissaried over from the west side location to the downtown store. "There are other stores that sell some of the same products, like olive oils and cheeses, and they call it gourmet, but these were staples that we grew up with and were always in our home... So, we try to keep the prices reasonable on these quality selec- tions. We work to transfer cost saving to our customers through the economies of scale provided by our import buying power at our west side Houston headquarters," says Ann-Marie. The Tcholakian family are ethnic Arme- nians who were living in Lebanon when civil war broke out there. As the war inten- sified, the family began looking for a way out in 1979, particularly since Arpi was eight months pregnant with her youngest and wanted a safe place to raise her chil- dren. The fam- ily had a cousin in Houston who lived next to a hospital, so when flight be- came a matter of survival, Houston it was. Zohrab, an architectural engineer, got a job in the oil industry, and things were going fine until the oil industry collapsed in the early 1980s. Zohrab decided that the time was right to leave the industry and start his own business, following the exam- ple of his father, who had owned a neigh- borhood store in Beirut. "He didn't want to wait for his pink slip, so he con- vinced my mom," Ann-Marie says. In 1983, he and Arpi opened a little cafe on the west side of Hous- ton where they offered deli items and shawarmas, which Arpi de- scribed to her customers as a sandwich that resembled "a Middle Eastern burrito." "Back when my parents started, they had to educate people. They always wanted to make it international because they had a mix of culinary influences being Armeni- ans born in cosmopolitan, European-influ- enced Lebanon," says Ann-Marie. "Back then, when my parents started, not many knew what hummus dip was in Texas. Now everybody knows what hummus is." As the cafe's following grew, the Tcholakians added more and more grocery to the business. "It was a struggle in the '80s for my parents to keep the business open. It just took a lot of work and dedica- tion to keep the business alive in the 1980s in a collapsed economy," Ann-Marie says. "My brothers and I used to do our home- work and watch TV in the back of the store. People knew our lives." The down- town store opened five years ago after the developer of the building in which the store is now located offered them a space on the ground floor of a residential tower in a neighborhood that hadn't seen a grocery store for 40 years. "We were very attracted to what the city was doing and what the Downtown District was doing. There is a lovely park next door called Discovery Green with lots of programming and cul- ture, catering to Houston's diversity. It was a natural fit for Phoenicia," Ann-Marie says. "We've always felt very connected to Houston's growth, and it was really exciting to be part of the revitalization of down- town." In addition to the grocery, downtown Phoenicia Foods has an in-house beer and wine bar called MKT BAR. This gastropub concept offers comfort food with an inter- national twist, artisan beers, boutique wines, music and art programming and has become a hub for locals and visitors alike. Monday nights are Fun and Games Nights with retro board games, ping pong and more. Wednesdays are Vinyl and Vino Nights with guest disc jockeys playing their favorite vinyl records on stage. Tuesdays and Thursdays are popular MKT Steak Nights, "offering a nice steak for a minimal amount of money, which draws people from the neighbor- hood," Ann-Marie says. Cartoons & Cereal is a new event on Saturday mornings, with retro cartoons on the televisions from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. "People are always gravitating to the TVs," Ann-Marie says. "It's always been our goal to make Phoenicia Specialty Foods and MKT BAR down-to-earth and fun." "For the downtown location, we work hard to create events that attract attention, to gain a clientele. In the urban market space, you have to do a little more to cap- ture people's attention and to create a neighborhood destination and feel," Ann- Marie says. "Downtown Houston is still emerging, and so we had to put a lot of en- ergy in from the beginning to grow the business. That's the reason why MKT BAR exists today." "A lot of people come to MKT BAR for a music performance for example, and then they buy their feta cheese to take home. It's a symbiotic relationship between MKT BAR and the grocery," she continues. "There are other customers who come for the gro- ceries and discover MKT BAR and are amazed. They work hand in hand very well." GN MOM's Puts Bugs on the Shelf Family owned and operated MOM's Organic Market has introduced a wide selection of sustainable insect proteins to its Ivy City, D.C., location. The retailer's interest in entomophagy was spurred by a trip to Mexico's La Merced Market. There, MOM's Vice President of Produce & Grocery Lisa de Lima and Vice President of Wellness Steve Geest tried out the vendors' escamoles, which are ant larvae. The Ivy City store now offers cricket or mealworm Bolognese sauce; cricket cookies, snack bars, and chips; whole, flavored mealworms and crickets and cricket or mealworm protein powder. Similar sustainable protein sections have already launched at MOM's locations in Baltimore, Maryland; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and White Marsh, Maryland. Safeway to Anchor New Ho`okele Shopping Center Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. has signed Safeway to anchor the new Ho`okele Shopping Center, a 94,000-square-foot center that will bring new grocery and retail options to Central Maui, Hawaii. Located at the gateway to the Maui Business Park at the intersection of Ho`okele Street and Hana Highway, the center will feature a 57,400- square-foot Safeway grocery store and a Safeway Fuel Station. It will also include space for additional retailers and a drive-through restaurant. Kroger Named a Top 10 American Company for Inclusion The Kroger Co. has been named one of the top U.S. corporations for inclusion by Omnikal (formerly Diversity Business). Kroger was ranked eighth in the Omni50, which is a ranking of the top 50 corporate buyers of multicultural products and services throughout the U.S. Kroger was selected by more than 2 million women-and-minority- owned business owners that are part of the Omnikal community. Peapod Launches Petition Urging Employers to Offer Free Snacks Peapod.com has launched an online petition to advocate for free snacks for workers across the country. Research conducted by ORC International on behalf of Peapod has shown that the happiest workers are the best-fed workers. While 56 percent of full-time employees are extremely or very happy with their current job, that number jumps to 67 percent among employees whose offices provide free snacks. Only 16 percent of full time employees reported having snacks readily available. Peapod's online petition will unite hungry coworkers in a plea to employers to provide this much-loved perk. The #FreeOfficeSnacks4All petition hopes to inspire a workplace movement that will improve the workplace for both workers and employers. As research uncovered, nearly three quarters (71 percent) of respondents have had their personal snack, drink or meal stolen out of the communal office kitchen, an unnecessary stress that could easily be avoided with free communal snacks.

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