Sahadi’s in Brooklyn (187 Atlantic Ave.) is a New Yorker’s favorite for a never-ending selection beans, dried fruits and nuts, olives, hundreds of cheeses, breads, and prepared foods. Today it earns a place among America’s Classics, with the 2017 James Beard award announced this morning.
Sahadi’s joins Bertha’s Kitchen in Charleston, S.C., Gioia’s Deli in St. Louis, Mo., Schultz’s Crab House in Essex, Md., and La Taqueria in San Francisco in receiving an award.
Founded in Manhattan in the 1890s, the shop moved to Brooklyn in 1941. This location had been run by Charlie Sahadi for 50 years until he retired at the age of 71 in 2016. It’s now run by his children, Ron Sahadi and Christine Whelan.
From the announcement:
Atlantic Avenue, between the waterfront and the terminal is Brooklyn’s fertile crescent, a cluster of Middle Eastern restaurants, groceries, bakeries and sundry shops. Sahadi’s, at the heart of this micro-neighborhood, has a New York root system that dates to the late 19th century, when Abrahim Sahadi first set up shop in downtown Manhattan. Charlie Sahadi and his brother Bob Sahadi, direct descendants of Abraham, ran the business for more than 50 years with help from Charlie's wife Audrey before handing the reigns to Charlie's daughter Christine Whelan and son Ron Sahadi in 2016. Today, Sahadi’s is a bulk bin wonderland, packed with locals scooping through glass jars of amaranth, pistachios, dried figs, spices, and roasted coffee, or loading their carts with pantry goods like pomegranate molasses and Middle Eastern cheeses. It all comes together in the deli, where the family stocks multiple varieties of rich, tangy labneh, vats of creamy hummus and delicious seasonal salads as well as stocking the bakery with flaky borekas and baklava, harissa-drenched lavash and Middle Eastern breads.