Kalustyan's In Manhattan: International Spice Store And Now Packaged Goods

Forbes

23-07-2025

At Kalustyan's spice shop in Little India neighborhood of Manhattan, chefs and cook converge to buy ... More spices from around the world
If customers are looking for Mediterranean oils, Japanese condiments, African grains, Latin American sauces or European delicacies, they can find them at Kalustyan's spice store located on Lexington Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan's Curry Hill or Little India district, explains Ashfer Biju, a chef working with the brand on developing new products.
Kalustyan's is arguably the largest international spice shop located in New York City, and it's branching out into a new revenue stream.
It started producing a separate consumer packaged goods line of Indian curry, simmer sauces and soon chutneys, including its popular tikka masala sauce. Its owners Aziz Osmani and Syedul Alam developed these CPGs (consumer-packaged goods) when the pandemic curtailed their retail business. Its products are sold in 55 Whole Foods stores in the Northeast, select stores in NYC's five boroughs, and nationally on Amazon.com and via mail order.
Change Is Constant
The name of the game at Kalustyan's is change. It opened in 1944, as a 1,000 square foot spice store that specialized in Armenian products including dried fruits, nuts, oils and grains. Its original owner Kerope Kalustyan, was an Armenian from Turkey when the surrounding neighborhood was mostly Armenian. Osmani and Alam took ownership in 1980.
Keeps Expanding
Since then, it has taken over two store fronts, and now measures 6,500 square feet with a 3,000 square foot basement, or 6 times its original size. Now it specializes in South Asian goods and sells items from 80 countries, Biju points out.
Variety Rules
What makes it special, says co-owner Osman, is 'the variety of ingredients in every category including its salt section, covering hundreds of salts from many countries; food additives, botanicals, like dried edible flowers, bitter syrups for cocktails and dried chiles for cooking, and spice blends.'
Many of them are sourced domestically but it also imports spices from 18 different counties. And it has Nigel on staff who sources new items that customers request that it doesn't carry and writes the detailed labels on each new product, which professional and amateur chefs scrutinize.
Biju says its target audience is varied including 'home cooks, chefs, and food lovers seeking authentic ingredients from around the world.'
Now its neighborhood is called Little India because of the many Indian eateries in its vicinity. But Kalustyan's products are international in scope cutting across many South Asian cultures.
The bulk of its revenue stems from sales at its retail shop, and its consumer package goods business is just gaining momentum. Next in line of supermarket goods is a range of chutneys including its special house recipe mango chutney.
Osmani says the new line of products sold at supermarkets 'wants to use the Kalustyan's reputation, and we thought there was a gap in the marketplace for authentic, ready to eat food that we could bring to the industry.' They're manufactured in Lancaster, Pa.
It presented its CPG products at the Fancy Food Show in late June at the Javits Center in NYC. Its goal was to 'get the name out there, for people to get to know our products, and open up some new doors,' Osmani notes.
He says he expects revenue to grow from the product line as its innovates new products and extends its supermarket to more of a national presence from the Northeast. Its simmer sauces, for example, he notes can be used on top of pastas, tofu, vegetables such as sauteed butternut squash, and cheeses.
Granted a tour by Ashfer Biju of what Kalustayan's carries, it's a veritable panoply of Middle Eastern and global spices. Chile spices from Peru, for example, warrants its own section (Who knew there were so many?). You need kashamiri red chile powder; this is the place for you. And black teas of many styles are available.
Kalustayan's makes its own baklava in the back kitchen and its feta cheese, but no longer has the room to makes prepared dinners the way it used to.
Osmani summarizes Kalustayan's as 'a destination store for people who come from all over the world including celebrated chefs and amateur chefs, people who attend culinary school, to food distributors, food writers and food critics, all of whom like to explore new items.'