By Karen Frantz
Housed in the historic Eagle Theater, just off a new pedestrian plaza along 37th Road, is the Jackson Heights Bazaar, a grocery market and food court tailored to the neighborhood’s bustling South Asian community. It has also has found a home in the hearts of the wider population.
The market offers fresh, frozen and packaged foods that are staples in Bangladesh, Tibet, India and Pakistan. One end of the store is lined with fresh fruits and vegetables, bulk grains, halal meat and other foods. At the other end of the shop is a bustling food court with South Asian offerings, including biryani dishes and tandoori meats.
One of the six owners of the bazaar, Mohammed Chunnu, said the market and food court attract a diverse clientele.
“Bangladeshi people and now American people like it, too,” he said.
He said about half of the people who shop at the bazaar, at 73-07 37th Road, are South Asian, while the remaining half is a diverse mix of races and ethnicities.
The bazaar opened about a year ago, the joint endeavor of Chunnu and his friends, most of whom are from Bangladesh but one is from India.
“We knew it’s a growing business, that’s why we try,” he said.
Chunnu said the most popular items in the store are the fish. The market boasts 10 freezers stacked full with frozen fish that Chunnu said have been imported from Bangladesh. The options range in size from the tiny oily variety to enormous whole frozen fish known as boal.
Chunnu said when the Bazaar first opened business was good. But it has not always been an easy time for the market. In its early days, City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) was concerned about the bazaar, citing wariness among the surrounding community about converting the beloved theater into a food court. The owners of the bazaar were also worried about how the controversial new pedestrian plaza that was being built might affect business.
But Dromm’s staff said after keeping an eye on the bazaar’s construction that it was done properly, and Chunnu said the plaza has turned out to be fine for business.
“It’s OK now,” he said.
He said it does attract homeless people, but it also is a place for the community to gather, eat and converse and sometimes he will even see people joining together in song.
“This is good community,” he said.
He added that although business has been lagging recently, he hopes it will pick up once the unseasonably cold spring weather improves.
And at least one customer will help to keep business going. Rajendra Shrestha, who moved to Jackson Heights from Nepal, said he comes to the bazaar’s food court nearly every day to eat. He said the food is more authentic than at other eateries in the neighborhood, reminding him more of what he was used to at home.
“It tastes like my country,” he said.
Reach reporter Karen Frantz by e-mail at kfrantz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
