By Jane Flanagan
Good news for Downtowners in search of a quality food market: The owners of the Amish Market and Zeytuna will be opening another large, gourmet grocery and restaurant on Park Place between West Broadway and Church St. in November.
The store will be located at 53 Park Place, between Church and West Broadway and will be nearly as large as the existing Zeytuna at 59 Maiden La., according to manager Nathan Grant. The Zeytuna is 22,000 square feet.
The owners are still deciding whether they will name it Amish or Zeytuna, which means “olive” in Latin, he said. Zeytuna got its name because co-owner Omer Ipek was an olive farmer in his native Turkey.
The location is likely to draw residents from Tribeca, the Financial District and Battery Park City, as well as workers from nearby offices.
The new, two-level store will be similar to the Zeytuna in its offerings as well. There will be a grocery with fresh produce, meat, fish, and baked goods. It will also have a deli and cheese counter, a taco bar and a “grill bar” offering burgers and steaks. Each day a variety of fresh fish and other dishes will also be available along with a soup and salad bar.
The new market is a welcome prospect for many residents.
“I think it’s great,” said Amelia Roraback, a resident of 53 Park Place. “There’s no place else to get good produce,” she said.
Gretchen Bailey, a resident of north Battery Park City agrees.
“This neighborhood is long overdue for a quality grocery,” she said.
Bailey said she sorely misses the Amish Market that was located at 130 Cedar St., a block away from the World Trade Center.
“I used to shop there all the time. Their produce is so much better than what’s available at the chain stores,” she said.
The Cedar St. Amish Market was badly damaged on Sept. 11 and never reopened. Ipek and co-owner Adam Arici reopened at a new, smaller store at 17 Battery Pl. across from Battery Park.
But the devastation at the store was a big blow to the partners, who lost an employee in the attack. Gavkhroy Kamardinova, a 20-year-old woman from Uzbekistan, had been on the job four days. She was working on the 98th floor of the W.T.C. south tower selling at an Amish Market cart.
Amish employees say they particularly enjoyed working at the Cedar St. store, where tourists were always stopping in. Customers and employees were always asking one another where they were from.
The partners have opened several new stores Downtown. In addition to the new Amish Market on Battery Place and the Maiden Lane Zeytuna, there are now markets on John St. and one at 161 Maiden La. near the Seaport.
Bailey, the Battery Park resident, is looking forward to repeating her Amish Market experience.
“When you walked in there it smelled like produce. That’s a good thing. The chain stores never smell that way,” she said.
