The highly-anticipated new Phoenicia Specialty Foods officially opened on Thursday with a ribbon cutting ceremony and lots of pita bread!
Houston
City Council Member James Rodriguez, Downtown Management District
Director Bob Eury and others joined the Tcholakian family in opening the
new Downtown store, located on the ground floor of the One Park Place
residential high-rise. Officials hope the 28,000-square-foot store will
become a go-to spot for Downtown residents and workers looking for
everything from grocery staples to take-out meals to wine by the glass.
Featuring
more than 10,000 products from over 50 countries, Phoenicia is being
billed as a one-stop-shop—there’s a fresh pizza area, exotic seafood
from all over the world, a sushi bar and even gourmet gelatos. The new
MKT Bar inside the store offers coffee, wine and beer for those seeking a
new kind of Downtown hangout.
Haig Tcholakian, son of
Phoenicia-founder Bob Tcholakian and the company’s wine and beer
manager, said the Downtown store will provide a window into the
diversity present throughout Houston. “This is a culinary and cultural
destination, not just a grocery store,” he said.
Bob Tcholakian
and his wife Arpi opened the first Phoenicia Deli in 1983 in West
Houston. Through the years, the family expanded the concept with an
importing warehouse and later a 55,000-square-foot specialty foods
market. Innovation and dedication to quality led Saveur magazine to name
Phoenicia one of the “top ten food market in the United States” in
2009.
Perhaps the central fixture in the new store is the
150-foot conveyor belt that transports freshly baked pita bread from the
market’s mezzanine bakery to customers on the ground floor. The bread
is sold in store but also makes its way to restaurants around town.
