It’s the Sahadi’s experience — on steroids!
Beloved Brooklyn Heights grocer Sahidi’s will open its long-awaited super-sized second location in Sunset Park’s Industry City later this year — a more-than-a-football-field-sized store with an open kitchen, bar, and event space.
Going bigger in the borough is the natural next move for the 70-year-old shop, according to its co-owner.
“Brooklyn is a dynamic place,” said Bay Ridgite Christine Sahadi Whelan. “The Industry City store will allow us to share the beloved Sahadi food-and-hospitality culture in a new, modern setting.”
The new 35th Street outpost of the bulk-goods emporium — famous for its bins full of Middle-Eastern delicacies, including nuts, dried figs, spices, and roasted coffee — will also offer weekend brunch, a prepared-foods section with a dining-in area, and a saj — a griddle for making flatbread that the owners first saw on a trip to Beirut — according to New York Magazine, which also noted that the owners want to serve “lesser-known dishes” including chicken merguez with green tahini and couscous timbale with duck confit.
Whelan’s grandfather, Wade Sahadi, founded the store in 1948 as a reincarnation of the Manhattan market his great uncle, a Lebanese immigrant, launched in 1895. Whelan’s father, Charlie, and uncle, Bob, later took over the shop, and oversaw the original location’s expansion in 1985. The pair expanded to a third storefront about 25 years later, and the duo handed the day-to-day operations over to Whelan and her brother Ron in 2016. The store has become a neighborhood institution during its decades in business, and even took home the coveted James Beard award for awesomeness last January.
