The Centretown grocer sells spices and saffron while sharing stories of Iranian culture.

By Katie Shapiro

Eddible Ottawa

For more than 25 years, Arya Food Market has been an enduring presence in Centretown. Opened in 1999 on Bank Street, the store relocated to Gladstone Avenue five years later and has been there ever since. More than just a grocery store, Arya has been a cultural staple for the city’s Iranian population — and a gateway for other communities to discover Persian cuisine and traditions.

Azar Agharazi and her husband Mohsen Mohammadi immigrated to Canada from Iran in 1984. Several years after settling in Ottawa, they noticed that though the Iranian community was growing in the city, it remained difficult to find Iranian prod- ucts. Mohammadi, who had worked as a technician prior to emigrating, was working as a cab driver and decided to open his own store. Agharazi was working in the travel industry, but stepped away to help Mohammadi open Arya. She later opened her own travel agency above the store on Gladstone, and continues to be a partner in the shop.

Running a store that relies on importing goods internationally comes with its own set of challenges, Agharazi says. From the price of oil impacting shipping costs and times, to planes being grounded with shipments, logistics can be difficult to navigate at times. “Even the politics in the Middle East affect everything,” she says, “and you want to make sure that you have all the products in the store.”

Over the years, Agharazi says she’s noticed an increase in diversity of her clientele and an uptick in interest in Persian cuisine. “People like different foods, they ask for recipes and they want to try new things,” she says. “Before nobody knew what Persian cuisine was, and now people are experimenting more.”

Arya’s expansive nut selection is a popular draw, as well as the Iranian sweets that come in from Toronto and Iran. A selection of Iranian breads are brought into the shop late on Fridays, so Saturday shoppers benefit from the best bakery selection.

Ingredients central to Persian cuisine — real saffron, barberries, rosewater — fill the shelves, along with tins of fried celery, sweet wheat germ and spices. There’s a small halal butcher counter at the back of the shop, and the refrigerated section includes a variety of prepared stews, yogurt sodas and non-alcoholic malt drinks. Popular frozen desserts include saffron ice cream and faloodeh, similar to a sorbet with thin sweet noodles and rosewater.

There is also an array of herbal distillates and syrups that Agharazi notes are used both for cooking and medicinal purposes; there is a small framed print amidst the selection of bottles that indicates which product helps with certain ailments (mint is said to help stomach aches, and fennel to help with digestion, for example.) Social media has also impacted how people shop. When lavashak, a Persian fruit leather snack, had a moment on TikTok, Agharazi saw a spike in interest in the product. “Young people like it,” she chuckles, “they saw it online and the next day they came asking for it.”

Though the shop rarely sells fresh produce, it carries all the other ingredients that one would need to make popular Persian dishes such as Zereshk Polo ba Morgh (barberry with rice), saffron and chicken or spiced kebabs with rice. In the springtime, Arya carries fresh green plums (gojeh sabz) and young green almonds (chaghaleh badoom.)

The arrival of these items coincides with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which marks the beginning of spring, and the most significant celebration in the Arya shop calendar. Agharazi is sure to carry all the products required for the Nowruz haftseen, a group of seven symbolic items to celebrate the new year. One of these items is wheatgrass — a fresh flash of green for spring — which Agharazi grows herself each year to display in the shop. “Not because I want to make money,” she says. “I want to show people, our community and our culture. No matter where you come from, each culture has beautiful things.”

Arya Food Market
508 Gladstone Ave., Ottawa
613.594.3636