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The floors are often a bit filthy and sometimes there's a guy at the counter paying for a fifth of 5 O'Clock vodka with nickels. Nothing memorable.
Enter Healthy Spirits at 15th and Castro, "A Corner Store With Personality" so says their business card and their MySpace page. How many corner stores do you know that have a business card AND a MySpace page?? Exactly.
I'd been hearing about this place from some folks in the know, and sure enough upon entering the store, I was greeted by a guy in a chef's hat fashioning delicious artisan cheese plates for all to sample!
Apparently they make some of their own cheeses there, including a Middle Eastern one called labani, which is stored in olive oil and creamy like cream cheese only a little milder. The corner store chef guy served it with cherry tomatoes and fresh mint...and kept pulling out other cheeses that we "had to try." I wanted to stay there all night.
Oh, did I mention they have the largest selection of Belgian beers in San Francisco? It goes so far beyond Chimay and La Chouffe that I bet all of your Belgian friends (do you even have any?) won't even know about half the stuff.
Yeah, and they have Friday night Rami's Mommy dinners which you can reserve for $10...Rami being the store owner, and his mom being the one who makes all the Middle Eastern delectables.
Instead of novelty underwear shaped liked roses
on the store counter, you can get a little tub of homemade zatar or a locally made Charles Chocolates bar. Now that's classy.
2 comments:
If all this other tasty stuff isn't enough, there's a large and varied selection of foreign chocolates at this fine establishment. We're talking Scharffenberger, Cadbury's, and weird chocolates made with cumin and cardamom. There's literally enough good chocolate to send any PMS sufferer into a full-fledged frenzy -- but in a good way. Just hook me up with a bottle of Kwak and some dark chocolate with hazelnuts and I'm set. (drool)
Add that corner store to my new places to visit. And I want to go to the Dinner... It is so nice to see a store owner with class and into the customers.
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