Ever have a craving for some head cheese? Or a drink of kvass, a traditional Eastern European bread drink? If so, then take a drive over to the Dnipro Deli where customers will find meats, breads and candy that can’t be found at the local Price Chopper.
The deli, located on 1533 Central Ave. in Colonie, offers Eastern European foods from countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Poland. The owner of the deli, Igor Korostil, 33, emigrated from Ukraine where he was studying to become an accountant. When he met his wife, Inna, he discovered she and her father had papers to come over to the United States. When he married into the family he became eligible to immigrate as well.
So I said, ‘Take a chance, we’ll see, he said of his leap of faith to come over to America. `I had no idea that when I came to the United States that I would have a store like this.`
As Korostil stood behind the counter of his store surrounded by various meats, cheeses and fish, he said the idea to open a deli in upstate New York came when he had visited a friend in Binghamton who owned a similar store.
`That’s when I had gotten the idea that there was a big Russian population in Albany, and we decided to try [to open a store] ` he said.
His friend tipped him off to a few vendors in areas such as Philadelphia and Chicago that would provide the food he needed. He also heads down to New York City a couple of times a week to pick up products.
His first trip down there, however, was not a pleasant one, but it was one he will never forget.
`The very first time I had gone down to New York City to just check out the places and see what people have, I made a wrong turn in Manhattan coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel at 8 o’clock in the morning,` he said. `I got two parking tickets, $500 each. There was one officer in front of my van and the other behind my van.`
Korostil opened his first store in Cohoes in 2007, but after damages from a fire and a flood in their basement, he decided to take his store elsewhere. The damage was not the only reason for the move, though, as he noticed it was hard for his customers to actually get to the store.
`It was too complicated to go to Cohoes,` Korostil said. `People had to carve out an hour and a half to get there. It looks like people can get here [the Colonie location] from any direction.`
After four weeks of the store’s Colonie residency, Korostil said he has seen all of his old customers come in, as well as some new faces that have wandered in out of curiosity.
Alex Yurovsky, a Clifton Park resident who moved from Russia in 2004, comes down to the store once every two or three weeks to get food he says is better than American food.
`I get the bread, sometimes sausages and sometimes the fish,` he said. `Eastern European taste is very different from American taste. Americans have lost all the recipes [of European tradition]. They just dusted it away, like McDonalds.`
Korostil said his store offers 75-80 different types of meat including mortadella, krestyanskaya and knockwurst.
`Many people like to try something different,` he said. `You just have to be brave enough to step in and try it.`
A few people from the Ivory Coast made their way into the store for the first time, so he began offering them suggestions and giving them samples of the different vegetables and meats his store had to offer.
`Very first impression for people who come in is it’s different,` he said of his store. `It’s different than Chinese food and it’s different than Middle Eastern food. It has a unique, specific twist to it. For some people, they have to try it once or twice. They have to be a little more open.`
Korostil said he hopes to expand his store by adding more features such as a kitchenette or even different types of foods.
`Maybe I’ll add some dumplings or perogies,` he said. `We need time to settle in here, first.`
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