K Market aims to tantalize tastebuds with Sephardic flavors

By Deb Silverthorn

K Market Kosher Grocery & Deli, opened last week at Frankford and Hillcrest in Far North Dallas, is bringing Jewish favorites and flavors to the community. 

Eliran Amiel, Celia Chera-Suissa, Edan Ezer, with their spouses and children, welcomed shoppers at their grand opening Sunday, April 3.

“We’re bringing ready-made and grocery products, some that people are familiar with, and many of the Sephardic flair of our combined Israeli and Jewish Moroccan, Syrian and Lebanese backgrounds,” said Chera-Suissa. “It’s a little of this and a little of that and we think our community will enjoy it all.”

Chera-Suissa, with her husband Avi and the couple’s twins Haim and Moshe, moved to Dallas from Brooklyn, New York, in 2020.

Amiel, his wife Natalie and their children Elle, Liv and Shine, moved to Dallas eight years ago.

“My partners and I come from Los Angeles and New York and we are bringing the best of kosher specialties from both coasts to the middle of the country,” said Amiel.

Ezer moved to the Metroplex at the beginning of the pandemic with his wife Shlomit and their children Adele Or, Eli Yosef and Shayel Shira. Shirel Odaya has since been born here.

“This community is exploding with so many people, like all of us investing in the store, making Dallas their home — it’s a very special community,” said Ezer, who was born in Los Angeles, California, lived in Israel for nine years and then in Los Angeles in 2001. “Our doors are open now to everyone, with a kitchen that is as varied as the city’s residents.”

Amiel, Chera-Suissa and Ezer, who each have their own previous business success, have hired Manager Liat Elise, Chef Moshe Benitach and Mashgiach Marcos Betech, newly arrived from Mexico, whose experience in the kitchen and in the grocery space rounds out the team.

Elise has relocated from Chicago, Illinois, where she worked at Sarah’s Tent Market, a popular Hungarian kosher grocer. Visiting friends in Dallas last month, she happened to be walking the aisles of a local store at the same time as Chera-Suissa with a mutual friend of the two.

“I mentioned the store opening and he introduced me to Liat then and there. She wanted to move here, and we needed her expertise,” said Chera-Suissa. “We went to Kosherfest and were bombarded by vendors wanting to see her — she’s a superstar in this industry.”

It was Chef Moshe’s parents Daniel and Tzila — owners for 25 years of the Kiryat Shmona restaurant  “Ta-ameem” — who taught him to cook. His kitchen is rotating dishes including rotisserie chicken and lamb, rolled grape leaves with meat and a lemon and prune sauce as well as stuffed tomatoes with green peppers and mint.

There will be stuffed artichokes, smoked fish, bean dishes, quinoa and other salads, homemade pickled peppers and cauliflower. There is a dedicated pareve oven and fryer and prep area; all items are either pareve or fleishig (meat).

“There will always be a great variety of traditional salads, main and side dishes with my version of new flair and high edge,” said Chef Moshe, who moved to North Dallas with his wife Shani and their children Dor and Shir three years ago; baby Lynn, a native Texan, is 5 months old. Shani, the daughter of area residents Eli and Tsipi Matityahu, is a graduate of Plano Senior High School, and glad to be back home. 

K Market Kosher opened with their kitchen ready for Passover. The ready-to-go case offers roast beef with a mushroom sauce; mashed potatoes with ground beef, mushrooms and onions; and artichoke hearts with meatballs.

The market & deli plans to broaden its menus by bringing local home chefs into the market’s kitchen, sharing dishes from around the world.

“Our guest chefs don’t have to be professionals; they just have to have a passion for what they cook and the pride to want to have members of the community bring it to their own homes,” said Chera-Suissa. 

The staff of K Market Kosher has unloaded palettes of canned and dry goods — many with labels that are in English on one side and Hebrew on the other — as well as refrigerated and frozen items. There are spices from around the world and a fresh produce section that also includes roasted nuts and dried fruits. There will be fresh baked goods, again many with a Sephardic flair, and a counter of butcher-cut and deli meats.

Meira Naor, executive director at Dallas Kosher under whose auspices K Market Kosher is certified, believes that as the community grows more options for kosher eats are important.

“We are excited and it’s the kosher consumer who wins as establishments make our area their home. The dedication to kashrut from all of our businesses is really very special,” she said.

“The first samples have been wonderful and this first week exciting,” said Rabbi Sholey Klein, DK’s Kashrus administrator. “Dallas Kosher is extremely proud of the growth and support of our kosher community and it’s terrific to add another opportunity for those in our community to keep kosher to our already wonderful eating and shopping experiences.”