It’s 1:30 p.m. on a Friday, which means Brooklynite, Christine Whelan, has just returned to the office from her daily yoga session. An unopened kale salad awaits consumption by her chair, she’s halfway through a bottle of fresh orange juice and the Diet Coke sitting on her desk is caffeine-free. 

 

You’d think, by now, that zen would have overcome her, but you’d be wrong –– neither drinks nor downward-dogs are not strong enough to falter Whelan’s enthusiasm, especially when Sahadi’s, the Middle Eastern food store that generations of her family have owned for the past 120 years, is on the table. Days are busy for the third generation co-owner, and now even more so with the store’s long awaited expansion project and a cookbook in the works.

 

Whelan’s office sits one flight above the hallmark market on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights which is, at this hour, filled with customers scavenging for local and international spices to flavor dishes with. Some are trying to decide from the tempting assortment of pastries, dips and entrees pre-prepared by the immigrant staff, who, combined, speak a total of six languages. The display is grand, but the real treat for your senses is the smell. 

 

Za’atar manakeesh is wood-fire oven baking, and the aroma of thyme is so strong, you’d think you were in a garden somewhere in Beirut. Walk past the cheese section, and you’ll wish the pungent notes of feta hitting your nose were hitting your tongue instead. It seems an impossible feat to leave Sahadi’s not feeling ravenous, no matter how much you’d eaten just before –– and that’s what makes it so special.

 

To Whelan, though, Sahadi’s is more than just an iconic grocery store that, since moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn 65 years ago, the neighboring Middle Eastern community has found solace in –– it’s family history, perhaps even destiny. “I grew up in this store,” she tells me, reminiscing when her job consisted of hand packing and merchandising rather than micromanaging the entire operation. 

 

Though she studied finance at NYU Stern, there was never any doubt that food would encompass Whelan’s future. And, she says, contrary to the widespread stereotype that Lebanese fathers, like hers, predestine their children’s futures, her career at Sahadi's is certainly not the result of some involuntary hereditary fate.

 

Rather, it was Whelan’s own love of all things food –– from eating it, to cooking it, to hosting parties and going on vacations that revolve around it –– that roused her to continue the store’s legacy. “To Lebanese and Syrian people, food is the way we show love,” she says, speaking with her hands equally as much as with her mouth. 

 

That Middle Eastern lineage has also given rise to Whelan’s characteristic hospitality, which she, for the life of her, can’t seem to shake. “If you walk into my house and I didn’t offer you something to eat, I would feel awkward,” she admits. “Even if I don’t have something, I’m gonna find something. There’s bound to be nuts in the closet, a bottle of wine somewhere. I’m sure there’s a cracker."

 

And when Whelan isn’t busy being the model hostess, she’s at work from as early as 6 a.m. She spends the majority of her day responding to emails and doing outreach in order to maintain Sahadi’s reputation as a community icon. She also makes certain that their trademark personal touch is involved in every step, from product selection to management. 

 

“The only thing we have going for us in today’s retail market is us,” she says. “If you tell me that the chocolate’s too melted this week, I actually make the call to the chocolate supplier. And of course, he goes “Ooh, Sahadi's is complaining about the chocolate, maybe I should go see what’s wrong.’”

 

The store’s second branch is finally on track to open this fall in Sunset Park, near their offsite warehouse. The only expansion it’s seen prior was the gradual acquisition of its neighboring three lots for extra space, which now houses the famous deli area and bakery. Having also taken on recipe development for the first Sahadi’s cookbook to date, Whelan’s plate has never been fuller.

 

Though, judging by the perpetual smile on her face, whose liveliness offsets the black-and-white outfit and dark manicure she’s donning, Whelan remains collected. Perhaps it’s because this store has become her baby, especially with the leadership of the new location completely in her hands. 

 

“I finally get to decide the flow of the store. The flow was always what it was,” she tells me, excitedly. The biggest challenge so far has been deciding on how they would “recreate the footprint of Atlantic,” Whelan says, but they’ve managed to generate a number creative plans for the new site.

 

One includes their first cafe section, and Whelan intends for it to provide a holistic dining experience for Brooklyn’s rising food connoisseurs. “The younger demographic doesn’t just want to come in, have a sandwich and find a place to eat it,” she says. “They want the whole experience of watching someone make the granola, then buying it and eating it with the organic yogurt.”

 

Whelan devotes one full day a week to what she calls “special projects,” which, among many things, sees her transforming her home kitchen into a recipe test lab for the cookbook. She also decides which staff members, who are akin to family, will be promoted to the new location. One is Denissa Silva, who has been part of the Sahadi’s team since 2010.

 

Silva started as a seasonal volunteer, but says Whelan was so kept with her, that she was promoted to an administrative assistant, and will soon manage the new site. She describes the work dynamic of the family owned store as “hectic” but adds that, as a family-oriented person herself, it’s also her favorite thing about it. “I can come here and know that it’s home,” she says.

 

Silva’s involvement with the new site so far has been minimal, but after it opens, she’s set to take charge. “I’m hoping to take a back seat at the new store, and just let them shine,” Whelan says. Taking on three iconic generations of Sahadi’s has been a challenge, albeit an awarding one, and Sunset Park will determine the legacy Christine Whelan’s co-management has left behind before passing the torch. 

 

“One last thing to think about before retiring,” she tells me, with a bittersweet shimmer in her eyes. If her time at Sahadi’s had to be limited to any one generation of foodies, though, she’s happy it was as enthusiastic as this one. “If all one person gets out of me is that they would go into the food business because of my love for it,” she says, “I’m happy knowing I made that difference in their life.”