European Tastees, a family-owned European market, opened in 2005. Andrew Makian is the owner’s son and grew up working alongside his Armenian parents.
The shelves are lined with all things European—fine chocolates from Poland, Germany, Belgium, Bosnia, and Russia are one of the specialty-food items they carry.
The deli meats are uniquely European. The Hungarian salami, Jewish salami, kosher and halal items; pickled sauerkraut and mushrooms are customer favorites as well.
“Basically, whatever you would find in an American store you will find the European version of it here. Most of our clients are from other countries, and we get a lot of word of mouth from return missionaries who have served missions in one of the European countries, wanting to find some of the foods they experienced.”
There are new customers stopping in everyday. Andrew likes to make recommendations, and gives out samples considering there are so many items that new customers may not be familiar with. The sweets are always a draw for people. With so many varieties, if you did not grow up eating these things, it would be difficult to navigate without his direction.
“We have an importer that we work with out of New York. The FDA regulations make it easier to obtain items from an importer that has everything processed and cleared. We are trying to integrate the American culture into our store now. We are expanding our space and opening a café where we can serve food along with our market. A lot of American customers come in and want to eat some of the foods.”
4700 S 900 E #51, Salt Lake City. 801 226-0908
