DITMARS — Greek grocery store Mediterranean Foods opened its third and largest location in the neighborhood last week, featuring an olive oil bar where patrons can taste different flavors and a bakery that turns out homemade crepes.
Located on 35th Street and 23rd Avenue, the new store opened last Thursday selling an array of imported Greek and European goods like cheeses, coffee, pasta and more.
"It's much larger than the other ones, so we have much more stuff," said store manager Tommy Tentolouris.
New highlights include an olives selection with more than 30 different varieties, and an olive oil station where customers can sample the different oils and fill their bottles themselves.
The store's cheese counter sells more than a dozen kinds of feta, and there's also an in-house bakery that cooks up pastries and other goods, including homemade crepes that can be stuffed with any ingredients the shop sells.
"Whatever is in the store, we can put in it," Tentolouris said.
The new store was built to eventually replace the location in the Agora Plaza shopping center on 31st Street and 23rd Avenue, which is expected to close when its lease ends sometime in the next year.
That will leave two locations: the original Mediterranean Foods, on 34th Street and 30th Avenue, as well as the new store, Tentolouris said.
The new location stands where a defunct printing company, Sunnyside Prints, had previously been located. The store owners tore the old building down to build the grocery store, according to Tentolouris.
"People [are] saying it brought life to the neighborhood," he said.
