Eastern European grocery story Craft Food is looking to add beer and wine to its eclectic selection of offerings. The store at 8300 Preston Road specializes in items from more than 15 countries in eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region. Owners have now applied with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission for a beer and wine retailer’s permit. The approval process for that is expected to take around a month. If all goes smoothly, there will be beer and wine on the shelves by the end of July.
“We will have a lot of wines and beers from Eastern Europe,” founder and vice president Oganes Petrosian said. “All of our products are things you will usually not find in a regular grocery store,”
In addition to booze, Craft Food will also begin selling take-out food by the end of July. The new “hot section” will feature Mediterranean favorite like authentic shawarma, shish kabobs served with rice and falafel. According to Petrosian a large percentage of the store’s current customers are locals who have ties to Europe. He expects that to be different once the take-out area opens.
“I think a lot of American people are not very familiar with European food, but that will change when we open the hot section,” he says. “American people like to try a lot of different foods, and if it’s good, they will come back.”
Craft Food opened at the end of April. It’s a joint venture between Petrosian and his business partner, Ayvaz Arutyunyan. This is the second European-themed store for Arutyunyan in Plano. He also owns the smaller CCCP Market on Coit Road that caters to North Texas residents from Russia and other former Soviet countries. It will soon be re-branded as a second Craft Food location
Petrosian says that the new store was designed to be a little more upscale and user-friendly. Popular items include various types of cheeses, hams and sausages in the deli section. There is an impressive array of caviar and European dumplings (which, Petrosian notes are very different from Eastern dumplings). And for all the sweet tooths out there, Craft Food also boasts a vast selection of ice cream.
