Press Room

Phoenicia Specialty Foods carries more than 15,000 products with down-to-earth pricing from more than 50 countries. Fresh-baked artisan breads, European pastries, boutique wines and beers, quality meats and cheeses, fresh seafood and meat, hot grille items, catering, prepared foods, exotic produce and housewares are all available by Phoenicia’s buying power achieved from international imports.

Phoenicia Specialty Foods is a dream that started modestly nearly 30 years ago. In 1983, Bob and Arpi Tcholakian, formerly of Lebanon and of Armenian descent, opened Phoenicia Deli, a 2,500–square-foot Mediterranean-style delicatessen and grocery near Beltway 8 on Westheimer Road. In 1992, Phoenicia Deli rented out a lease space to store the many imported goods the Tcholakians were receiving. Soon, retail and wholesale customers started going to the storage space for a case of their desired hard-to-find specialty items and eventually this grocery section became a small specialty foods market. In 2006, the family further branched out and opened Phoenicia Specialty Foods, a 55,000-square-foot international food market across the street from the deli. The enterprise has continued to grow ever since and carries on with Phoenicia Specialty Foods Downtown.