THUNDER BAY – A grand opening was held on Saturday to present HDL Global Inc, a new Persian and Indian grocery store that also homes Desi Chatko restaurant.
Faraz Khorsandi, co-founder of HTL Global Inc, said it was an important day.
“We have Desi Chatko which is Indian street style food. It’s pretty affordable and it's pretty tasty. A lot of people like it, so we always ask people to come in and try it for us.
“Then we have Persian and Indian groceries and Indian courses as well as fresh produce that fly in from India. We have all those accommodations for our international population, the Persian and Indian population and anyone else. Also, for the population that we have in Thunder Bay, for them to try exotic things and new things,” he said.
Khorsandi said it took close to a year for everything to come together.
“When the team came to me, I joined two months into the whole journey. I could see how it's a little bit tough starting as an international student in an international community. We tend to have less accommodations, but we managed to go through everything and basically have this up and running.
“It took around a year for us to basically grab everything from India because we start straight from India then again from Toronto.”
Nothing stopped them – everyone involved had something in mind to make the vision a reality for the international population, he said.
“We all started as international students and now we live in Thunder Bay permanently. For myself, I could see how the Persian population is growing.
“As well as my position as a LUSU president, I would talk to a lot of students – they were talking about accommodations and how it affects them staying in Thunder Bay."
For Khorsandi, Thunder Bay is home now.
“I wanted to have those accommodations so I can return that population here in Thunder Bay and make them feel at home. That may help the city and help the community and again, give different opportunities for people who have been living here long to explore new groceries, new food and open their eyes in different things,” Khorsandi said.
There are three partners of HDL Global INC, Faraz Khorsandi, Dharmesh Visana and Masood Imtiaz. Pratik Patel is chef and owner of Desi Chatko.
“This is our team and we met with each other back when we started two years ago.
“Actually, my partner, Dharmesh was on his way out when we started, but we became friends. Later on, he had this idea and he wanted to start this."
They all agreed to just go for it, Khorsandi said.
“I'm always about doing some stuff and new experiences, having businesses and hopefully helping the society and our community.”
Khorsandi said they did a soft launch back in March.
“That is the Persian New Year. It was easier for us to bring the Persian groceries because they’re coming from Toronto and it was little bit easier to get our hands on them.
“We started with that so the Persian community can start a fresh New Year with the with groceries and the accommodations and what they need,” he said.
Khorsandi felt very relieved today.
“It feels really comfortable. I feel really good right now because it took a while and it was a little bit tough to get all the things going and we had to jump a lot of loops. Going through all of that and having everyone here now enjoying this and hopefully being able to give back to the community, to the students and to the international community that we have here is just great.
“I'm pretty sure that all of the team and the people who are here and supporting us feel the same. I'm proud and happy,” he said.
Khorsandi said the hours of operation are typically 11 a.m. until 10 or 11 p.m. Their hours will be updated on Google if there are any changes.
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.
