Mr. & Mrs. Duran with Nick Katopodis
Maria Mamais with daughters Irene and Calliope
Bishop Apostolos and Stelio Katopodis cutting the ribbon
North Shore Farms Markets Inaugurate Newest Location in Whitestone, Queens by Cindy Klimek The North Shore Farms supermarket chain opened its newest location in Whitestone, a neighborhood on the eastern side of Queens, New York, on Friday, December 14th. An opening ceremony was held the evening before, beginning with a traditional Greek Orthodox Agiasmos/blessing officiated by Bishop Apostolos of Medeia, Father Dionysios Anagnostopoulos of Holy Cross (Whitestone), Father John Lardas and Father Dennis Strouzas of Archangel Michael (Port Wa s h i n g t o n ) , F a t h e r N e k t a r i o s Papazafiropoulos of St. Demetrios Cathedral (Astoria), and Father Gerasimos Ballas of Sts. Anargyroi, Taxiarchis and Gerasimos in Greenport. A ribbon cutting ceremony followed, presided over by Queens Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Grech, representatives from the NYPD Community Affairs Office, the heads of the We Love Whitestone Civic Association, and members from assorted local nonprofits and churches. Once the doors opened at 9:00am on the 14th, 52
JANUARY 2019
NEWS & NOTES
Photos: ETA PRESS / Christos Cavvadas
customers were greeted by cheering, locally hired employees, and the first 10 shoppers to enter the store were rewarded with $25 North Shore Farms gift cards.
landlord expressed to us that there was a big interest in a supermarket in the area, they had some conversations with us about their willingness to subdivide and that made it a lot more appealing. It was a combination of both “We’re excited to bring North Shore Farms to t h e bu i l d i n g a s s u b d i v i d e d a n d t h e Whitestone and to Queens,” said company community.” spokesperson George Tsiatis. “Our Great Neck store was close, but there’s nothing like being The first North Shore Farms store opened in in the heart of a vibrant community like 2003 in Port Washington. Since then, it has Whitestone. We’re lucky to have had the expanded to an eight-store franchise, with support of the community, and we look additional locations in Great Neck, North forward to serving them now and in the Bellmore, Glen Cove, Commack, Mineola, future.” Hauppauge, and now Whitestone. The newest store also marks North Shore Farms’ first foray According to Tsiatis, the Whitestone store into Queens. Says Tsiatis, “Whitestone is a came about due to a stars-aligning moment of community that appreciates the type of food the owners’ interest in Queens location paired and the type of store that we are. We bring with a newly vacant building. “The building together sort of the best of your farmer’s itself used to be a Waldbaum’s but the footprint market, your specialty store, and your was too big for our store. We know our store standard supermarket. I think there really isn’t performs well at a certain size building and a a similar store in the neighborhood so we don’t Waldbaum’s like that was too big. Once the have a competitor, as a result.”