Kalustyan’s In Manhattan: International Spice Store And Now Packaged Goods

· July 24, 2025

Forbes

At Kalustyan’s spice shop in Little India neighborhood of Manhattan, chefs and cook converge to buy … More

COURTESY OF KALUSTYAN’SIf customers are looking for Mediterranean oils, Japanese condiments, African grains, Latin American sauces or European delicacies, they can find them at Kalustyan’s spice store located on Lexington Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan’s Curry Hill or Little India district, explains Ashfer Biju, a chef working with the brand on developing new products.

Kalustyan’s is arguably the largest international spice shop located in New York City, and it’s branching out into a new revenue stream.

It started producing a separate consumer packaged goods line of Indian curry, simmer sauces and soon chutneys, including its popular tikka masala sauce. Its owners Aziz Osmani and Syedul Alam developed these CPGs (consumer-packaged goods) when the pandemic curtailed their retail business. Its products are sold in 55 Whole Foods stores in the Northeast, select stores in NYC’s five boroughs, and nationally on Amazon.com and via mail order.

Change Is Constant

The name of the game at Kalustyan’s is change. It opened in 1944, as a 1,000 square foot spice store that specialized in Armenian products including dried fruits, nuts, oils and grains. Its original owner Kerope Kalustyan, was an Armenian from Turkey when the surrounding neighborhood was mostly Armenian. Osmani and Alam took ownership in 1980.

Keeps Expanding

Since then, it has taken over two store fronts, and now measures 6,500 square feet with a 3,000 square foot basement, or 6 times its original size. Now it specializes in South Asian goods and sells items from 80 countries, Biju points out.

Variety Rules

What makes it special, says co-owner Osman, is “the variety of ingredients in every category including its salt section, covering hundreds of salts from many countries; food additives, botanicals, like dried edible flowers, bitter syrups for cocktails and dried chiles for cooking, and spice blends.”

Many of them are sourced domestically but it also imports spices from 18 different counties. And it has Nigel on staff who sources new items that customers request that it doesn’t carry and writes the detailed labels on each new product, which professional and amateur chefs scrutinize.

Biju says its target audience is varied including “home cooks, chefs, and food lovers seeking authentic ingredients from around the world.”

Now its neighborhood is called Little India because of the many Indian eateries in its vicinity. But Kalustyan’s products are international in scope cutting across many South Asian cultures.