THUNDER BAY — The city's growing Iranian and East Indian communities are welcoming the opening of the first grocery store exclusively selling products from those parts of the world.
"The mixture is the first. We didn't have any Persian stores before here in Thunder Bay, and Northwestern Ontario," said Faraz Khorsandi, co-founder of the local outlet.
"With the increasing number of Persian students and people who live here right now, the community is growing. It came to our minds to cater based on their needs, and try to retain those populations . . . their nationality is Iranian but their ethnicity is Persian."
HDL Global Inc. started up its Thunder Bay location in March after extensive renovations in the building that also houses Pizza Hut at 635 Arthur St. W.
Integrated with the grocery store is Desi Chatko, an Indian street food bar.
"The food is pretty cheap, and people enjoy it. It's not, I would say, a main dish but it's like a street-style food," Khorsandi said Tuesday in advance of the grand opening planned for July 27 at noon.
He said HDL Global exports a large variety of spices and Indian groceries, "but the tagline is 'health matters,' and they should try to provide groceries that are healthy. And they're not using any kind of GMOs [genetically-modified organisms], and basically they're organic."
He said the products come direct from Iran and India.
The store also offers non-food items such as skewers "because Persians do a lot of barbecuing, you know, kababs and all that. So it's all the things that we try to bring so that they can have that taste of what it used to be back home, and try to settle here in Thunder Bay."
Although the business is targeting a specific group, Khorsandi would also like to entice the general population to try food they haven't had before.
"I feel like this grand opening can open the eyes of many who have been living here and have never had a chance to basically experience this, to what we bring, and hopefully engage them."
All six people who work at or manage the operation are international students or graduates who came to Thunder Bay to complete their education.
