Loading ...Closure of W-B business a sign of the times - News - Citizens' Voice
WILKES-BARRE — After 30 years in business, Badih and Jamile Aboutanos are ready to retire.
They’re closing their small grocery store on Park Avenue at the end of the month, and with it will go a sign of one of the notable immigration patterns to the Wyoming Valley.
Besides corner store staples, the Aboutanoses also sell a menu of Lebanese cuisine at Cedars Mini Mart & Deli. Alongside bologna and hot dogs are containers of tabbouleh, hummus, baba ghanoush and stuffed grape leaves, as well as meat pies, trays of baklava and the classic meat and bulgur dish kibbie. It’s a reminder of the country they came from and a popular seller among their customers.
It’s also a reminder that the region was once a popular destination from immigrants from Lebanon and Syria. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, large numbers of Christian Lebanese immigrated to the area, said Paul Zbiek, a history professor at King’s College. Many of them settled in the Heights, Rolling Mill Hill and Mayflower sections of Wilkes-Barre. They were a fairly mobile group as far as socioeconomic status, he said. Even though Wilkes-Barre was a coal mining town, they opened different business, and food businesses like groceries and restaurants were popular.
A few generations later, many of the families had moved, often to the Back Mountain or Mountain Top areas, Zbiek said. U.S. Census data for 2013 listed 1.5 percent of Wilkes-Barre’s population as having Arab ancestry.
Badih’s uncle was among those early immigrants to the region. He settled in Scranton in the early 1900s. His two brothers came over later. Badih’s brother came in the 1950s, and the family had a connection to the area.
Badih himself visited the area in 1977. It was two years after civil war had broken out in Lebanon, and one year before an Israeli invasion of the country. Four years after the visit, he and Jamile moved with their five children to Kingston, where Badih’s brother had moved decades earlier.
They looked for work and found an opportunity in the vacant storefront. They started the business in 1985, Jamile said. They were looking for a way to stand out when a customer suggested they offer some food from their native Lebanon.
Since then, they’ve been a place to pick up hummus, tabbouleh and other specialties, both for Lebanese-Americans looking for a taste of their heritage and Americans unfamiliar with the cuisine.
“I started doing it, then I couldn’t get out!” Jamile said.
Some of her best customers have been local fathers.
“They say ‘It’s my turn to make dinner,’” she remembered.
The city used to have more grocery stores owned by Lebanese proprietors, Zbiek said. The Aboutanos said their old landlord used to run a grocery and sell Middle Eastern food. They also remember a store, now closed, in downtown Wilkes-Barre, although that may have had a Greek proprietor.
For local devotees of homemade Middle Eastern cuisine, the options are now more limited.
“I’ve been coming here for a while,” said Daniel Ellis of Wilkes-Barre, who was shopping Thursday. His Lebanese father taught his Lithuanian mother how to make the family recipes. Ellis wrote them down, and he sometimes does some cooking. When he doesn’t feel like mixing the ingredients to make kibbie, he visits the mini mart.
“No one else makes it as good as here,” he said.
Jamile is in charge of most of the Lebanese food, although Badih earned a spot on the menu when she was out with an injury. While Jamile was recuperating, Badih made the prepared food. After she came back, he visited Lebanon, and on that trip, Jamile fielded requests from customers who wanted her husband’s tabbouleh. He got a promotion to head tabbouleh maker for the store. He’s also a stickler for sourcing.
“If the meat not delicious, the kibbie not delicious,” he said.
The last day of business is planned for Aug. 31. Badih, 84, and Jamile, 67 are looking to sell the building and planning a retirement spent visiting their children and baby-sitting grandchildren.
“They were very good times. The customers were great,” said Jamile. “I would open the store again if we had to do everything over again.”
Source: citizensvoice.com