Jennifer L.
Yelp
My sister is Orthodox Jewish and lives in Toco Hills. All the times we've visited she's encouraged us to stop by this store, but for some reason we end up only having time on Saturday and because the owners are Sabbath-observant, it's closed on Saturdays. This past visit I stayed longer and finally got to go to Spicy Peach! I don't keep kosher personally but I am kind of a foodie/weird food afficionado, and I look for gourmet food stores wherever I go. My sister was right that this shop is right up my alley. It's small, but well-organized. A lot of the foods are imported, many from Israel but some from elsewhere. And there are also items from local/US food producers that specialize in Kosher items, most not available in your average grocery store even if you live in a community with a lot of Orthodox Jews (and I don't). There is everything from gift boxes for special occasions/holidays (understandably, only Jewish holidays), to spices and sauces, to hundreds of kinds of candy and snacks (not only fancy things--many are hard-to-find Israeli imports or just kosher versions of candy bars/snacks for everyday use), to refrigerated items like cheese/yogurt/drinks, to a large frozen case in the back with many processed frozen foods. I was pretty well wowed, and found quite a few new/fun things to try, including some cream of corn single-serving soup that was tasty for lunch today! Also, prices are reasonable for what you are getting. I got five or six different bags of snacks/candy that I'd never seen before, two envelopes of soup, and a small container of bulk candy for under $20.
Two things I noticed that are not as positive: One is that this small market is not the place for household staples like flour, sugar, large or bulk containers, etc. It really is geared more towards small packages of items that are unusual and hard to find, or at least hard to find Kosher. Another is that I was not impressed with some of the items' quality. A package of fruit leather, once we got it home, turned out to have an unpleasant spoiled aroma so we threw it out. And I saw a large display of meat sticks of various flavors up front, but when I lifted a few of them up to see into the package, the meat had spots of white mold, so I didn't buy any.
I think it's too bad Cynthia had a bad experience here, but I can see how it could happen. Personally I never feel I'm quite communicating with the Orthodox women I have met in Atlanta. It always seems that they are trying to be polite, but mostly don't care about you if you aren't part of their tightly-knit community, even if you are related to a friend or are a client or shopper at their store. Smiles are insincere and they might not laugh at (clean) jokes. When we walked in yesterday, two of the owners were standing just inside the door having a conversation with a man, and they barely greeted us without looking at us, while moving just slightly away from the door so we could enter (we had to sort of squirm and push past to avoid bumping into the man, since men and women are not supposed to touch in the Orthodox community). There is an insularity in the community that seems to make people feel uncomfortable around people they don't know, and the result is sometimes New York-style snarkiness of the type Cynthia experienced. Similarly, though, I can tell you I have had dirty looks shot at me across a small-town café in rural northern Wisconsin simply because I was the only person there that people didn't recognize. It seems to me a fact of life in some types of communities. If you live in a diverse and accepting community it is a little bit jarring to encounter a sub-community that isn't as open to others. (Not to mention that teenagers working in retail everywhere tend to have terrible customer-relations skills...!)
In sum: definitely worth a visit for the selection, the fact that it is Kosher (if that's important to you), and reasonable prices for what you are getting. If you feel you are being given the cold shoulder, see if a smile and maybe a joke help. If not, it is not your problem--you tried.