There's Nutella and Carr's Table Water crackers--staples of the 'gourmet' section of even Star Market, but there is also Fleur de Sel sea salt from Brittany (billed as "the caviar of salt"), licorice candies from Genoa, jams and jellies from all over Europe, many varieties of olives imported from the Mediterranean region...the list, of course, goes on.

Gurdal calls the store's stock "a huge mishmash of flavors, quality, textures."

"A little bit of the best of everything from Europe," is how clerk Karen Halperin sums it up.

The defining feature is quality.

"We always try to find nice things and people who make things traditionally," says clerk Jason Bond.

"There's nothing here they haven't sampled," Halperin says of the store's owners. "They don't buy things because they read about them."

The store also takes pride in its homemade products--the cinnamon bread made twice a week by the in-house baker, or the soups, lamb and crme caramel created by the in-house chef.

And Gurdal assembles his staff from variety of backgrounds--employees hail from Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Brazil, Kansas and Atlanta, among other places. Many have either been to culinary school or have experience in the food business.