In Northeast, a Russian market with global aspirations

When NetCost Market opened its second Philadelphia location this summer, management instituted a new rule: Staff must speak English.

The goal, said Andre Malkin, a partner and vice president of operations, was to reframe the store as a supermarket for everyone - not just the Russian and Eastern European immigrants that are the company's core demographic.

"We have to have more English presence to make people comfortable and not to feel intimidated," said Malkin, who had heard from customers that staff in the past would address them only in Russian. "Russians have a tendency to be not that polite," he said, adding that he wanted people to come to NetCost and say, "Finally, it's a friendly Russian in town!"

Malkin, a resident of Warminster, was speaking in a spartan upstairs office, a perch overlooking aisles of smoked fish, frozen bulk pierogi, cured meats, and specialty produce. The new location, in Blue Grass Plaza on Welsh Road just east of Roosevelt Boulevard, had its grand opening in June, revealing what Malkin described as "Whole Foods-ish" interior design.

This corner of Northeast Philadelphia is the latest conquest for the 10-store chain, which is in expansion mode and includes stores in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Malkin is planning a third area location, in Richboro, Bucks County, and contemplating a smaller, gourmet store for Center City.

NetCost has built a following, and Malkin said customers travel from Harrisburg, Allentown, and Cherry Hill to shop there.

But the supermarket floor below his office was quiet on a recent visit. Those customers who did trickle in came for a variety of reasons.

At the checkout, a woman who would only give her name as Stacy was purchasing jugs of raw milk.

"Outside of Whole Foods," she said, "getting raw, grass-fed milk is almost impossible."

Elliott Alexander, who lives nearby, conceded he was part grocery shopper, part tourist.

"We've been experimenting with certain things, prepared foods," he said. "My grandmother used to make verenikis. Their cherry ones are really good."

Diana Nemirovsky, waiting by the deli counter, had come for a taste of her homeland. She was effusive: "I love this store. I like the staff, the service, the products."

She was picking up some Vincent, an aged Dutch cheese similar to Gouda, and thin-sliced bastirma, a seasoned, cured beef that was a favorite of hers growing up.

Nemirovsky, who emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1979, said her favorite brand of bastirma had been impossible to track down until she found NetCost Market.

Like a cross between Di Bruno Bros., a Russian grocery, and your run-of-the-mill Acme, NetCost's shelves are stocked with specialty and gourmet items, Russian standbys, and a broad spectrum of everyday essentials.

If you're considering a visit, here's your field guide:

Start in the produce aisle, which, on a recent day, was stocked with hard-to-find items such as green garlic, persimmons, parsley root, and six kinds of eggplant. Produce is brought in daily from specialty distributors.

Then, wander toward the prepared foods. Andre Gensar, a former restaurant chef, helms a seven-person kitchen, churning out pilafs, meat cutlets, Russian salads, all types of pierogi, stuffed cabbage, and six kinds of soup each day. Try the Okroshka, a chilled buttermilk soup with vegetables, herbs, potato, egg, and sausage, and Svekolnik, a cold beet soup with lots of dill, scallions, and creaminess from homemade kefir.

From there, you could go in any direction.

Consider the bakery, stocked with dark ryes that arrive par-baked and frozen from Germany and are finished on-site. The lengthy pastry case includes some items of concern (a dense-looking multigrain "croissant," for one), but also rows of more promising house-made cakes.

Or stop in the candy aisle, and savor the pleasant, low-stakes confusion of strolling into a grocery store in a foreign country: Make your best guess from dozens of bins of wrapped bulk candies from Russia and Ukraine, labeled exclusively and inscrutably in Cyrillic script.

Tear yourself away from the sweets to examine the herring, which is imported from Norway by the container. There's also smoked salmon, trout, and mackerel, plus caviar: sturgeon, salmon, and pike.

Or go for the cured and smoked meats that start with the familiar, such as natural-casing hot dogs, and unfurl an agenda of global domination that continues into the aisles of shelf-stable goods. As Malkin put it, "We have Heinz ketchup, and next to it, we have ketchup from Poland." In the extensive jam section, alongside Bonne Maman, you'll find an Armenian brand, Noyan, in flavors such as "Young Eggplant."

Malkin said his buyers were at last week's Fancy Food Show in New York and also have attended the shows in Paris, Moscow, and Kiev. NetCost recently opened a 150,000-square-foot distribution center on Staten Island to receive the 200 shipping containers the company imports each year.

Many of these items are high-end, and Malkin is focused on expanding organic, non-GMO, and gluten-free offerings for more-particular shoppers.

But the store also sees high volume on the first of the month, when food stamps are distributed.

Malkin could almost track Northeast Philadelphia's rapidly shifting demographics according to NetCost's inventory.

"We have Georgian hot sauce, rice from Uzbekistan, a typical pate from Lithuania," Malkin said. He has noticed an uptick in shoppers of Middle Eastern origins. "We can see increases in demand for rice. Albanian, Balkan, and Slavic countries have similar tastes. Lately, we see a lot of interest in halal meats, for example."

Malkin's goal is to provide one-stop shopping for all of them.

The emphasis on reaching a new, diverse customer base - and introducing all of those shoppers to NetCost's globalized inventory - means that this market is, incidentally, a mecca for moochers. On a recent visit, a sample table was laden with juices, cheeses, cured and smoked meats, and chocolate truffles.

Malkin looks at it as an investment.

"To earn the trust of the customers," he said, "that's the big difference."

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Serves 6

EndTextStartText

4 eggs

4 potatoes

1 bunch scallions, green parts only, sliced thinly

2 cucumbers, peeled and cut in strips

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 bunch parsley, chopped

1 bunch dill, chopped

1 pound bologna, cut into cubes

1 quart buttermilk

11/4 cups water

EndTextStartText

1. Hard-boil the eggs (cover with water, bring to a boil, remove from heat, and let sit for 12 minutes). Cool, peel, and cut into cubes.

2. Boil the potatoes, then peel and cube them.

3. Place scallions and cucumber in a pot, and add salt. Add potato, eggs, and remaining ingredients, stir together, and chill in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes before serving.

- Adapted for home cooks by NetCost Market

Per serving: 490 calories, 23 grams protein, 45 grams carbohydrates, 12 grams sugar, 27 grams fat, 158 milligrams cholesterol, 1,233 milligrams sodium, 6 grams dietary fiber.EndText

StartText

Serves 6

EndTextStartText

3 beets

2 carrots

2 eggs

1 quart buttermilk

1 bunch scallions, green parts, sliced thinly

2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1 teaspoon sugar

1 bunch parsley, chopped

1 bunch dill, chopped

1 tablespoon vinegar

Salt

1/2 cup sour cream

EndTextStartText

1. In a pot of water, boil beets and carrots until just tender, but not too soft. Allow to cool, then peel and cut into strips.

2. Hard-boil eggs. Allow to cool, chop, and set aside.

3. Put buttermilk, beets, carrots, scallions, cucumbers, sugar, parsley, dill, and vinegar in a pot, and add salt to taste. Chill for 30 minutes before serving. Top with hard-boiled egg and a dollop of sour cream.

- Adapted for home cooks by NetCost Market

Per serving: 408 calories, 12 grams protein, 27 grams carbohydrates, 16 grams sugar, 8 grams fat, 70 milligrams cholesterol, 313 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiberEndText

215-854-5053

@samanthamelamed