Sahadis Specialty Store
Sometimes there are just certain items you aren’t going to find at your local bodega and you aren’t going to find at your local grocery store, no matter how high end. When you walk into a shop like Sahadi’s, you quickly realize it’s like a candy store for foodies. Colorful and stacked high with jars and vats and packages displaying specialty spices, olive oils, cheeses, prepared foods, among other things that catch your eye and beckon you to grab a basket and start “treating” yourself. Of course a lot of items are from the middle east, so for a girl who is part Lebanese, this IS my candy store, with items that I can only find on rare occasions.
Inside Sahadis Market
But there is something for everyone here. The center of the front room is packed with coffees, dried fruits, nuts, spices, candies, olive oils and more, including a side bar full of olives and pickled everything {even garlic!}.
Sahadis Dried Fruit and Nuts
As you make your way to the back, you enter the room where smells of freshly baked breads and pastries are wafting through the air. A large selection of prepared salads, meat, spinach or veggie pies, hummus, baba ghannouj and lebne {traditional middle eastern yogurt spread} are on display and in many cases come in a variety of flavors that had me frozen with indecision. But you can order a sampling of as much as you would like, so don’t be shy — try anything that looks or sounds interesting.
Sahadi Lebne Variety
So if you are looking to make an excursion in search of some supremely fine specialty foods from the Middle East, you only have to travel as far as Brooklyn to gather your bounty. Sahadi’s is worth the trip, even if only to peruse the shelves or snag a free olive, but I guarantee you will not leave there empty handed — there are just too many delicious treats to leave behind.
Map: 187 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn
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8.ate@eight 
Let’s go there in October.