Over the past couple of years, one of the questions I’ve been asked most frequently and urgently by friends is: “Do you know when the hell Tashkent is opening downtown?” My phone has seen a slow trickle of messages about the promised Manhattan location of the Uzbek grocery chain with stores in Brighton Beach and elsewhere in Brooklyn and Queens. Just last week, one friend asked, “Can you investigate whether the Tashkent supermarket on West Fourth will ever actually open?” I decided some reporting was in order, but just as I was readying to get on the horn with my sources, my friend Charlie — a fellow plov enthusiast — texted me a photo of the store’s interior. “Dude, Tashkent is finally opening,” he wrote.
I am happy to confirm that the rumors are true: A representative for the store says that the downtown Tashkent is opening tomorrow. (Cross your fingers?) When I told one friend, he responded, “oh my God, no way.” Another wrote back to express a similar feeling of disbelief: “no fucking way!”
This reaction is understandable. For nearly three years, the owners of the very popular Uzbek grocery chainlet have said the downtown location would open imminently. For nearly as long, the windows of the space at 378 Sixth Avenue have been papered over with enticing images of kebabs, the words “Coming Soon,” and a big “Help Wanted” ad. My friends weren’t the only ones wondering: On Reddit, there’s a whole thread of people asking when it’s actually opening. (“I’m low-key getting pissed now I’ve been waiting so long,” is a common sentiment.) One enthusiast even developed a conspiracy that the other local merchants were afraid of just how powerful Tashkent would be, because “they’re about to be destroyed” by the high-quality, affordable produce.
Along with fresh produce and other staples, the Brighton Beach location of Tashkent is known for its extensive hot bar of Central Asian and Soviet food (plus a few western dishes, like “authentic Italian cannolis”). There are several varieties of samsa, the savory pastry found across Central Asia, as well as other stuffed breads like a very tasty chebureki with spinach. You’ll find lyulya kebabs and other grilled meats; salads such as herring under a fur coat; juicy manti; soups like laghman and borscht; plus blini and syrniki. There’s also a separate section for plov, the rice pilaf that is Uzbekistan’s national dish, in both the Samarkand and Tashkent style.
One Tashkent superfan I know joked that the owners are finally opening because Anora’s showing at the Oscars put Brighton Beach in the national conversation. I’m not sure if this theory holds weight, but it hardly matters: The store really is opening. The paper is off the windows, the lights are on, and, around 5 p.m. yesterday, employees were busy inside the store. Cases of soda and other goods were waiting to be unpacked. Excitingly, a large portion of the space seems to be taken up by the hot bar.
Devotees, like my friend Charlie, have high hopes: “This could be its ‘welcome to the league’ moment,” he told me. “This could change it all. Uzbek has been popping off in the outer boroughs; it was just a matter of time before it came to the city and took over.”