Aubergine Specialty Foods

Photo by Rebecca Wellman

When I visited Leon Zetler at his gourmet food shop in September, he had only been open for two weeks. The newly renovated store was crammed with parents, kids and neighbourhood peeps thrilled to finally have a grocery store nearby.

The new Aubergine has the same focus as Zetler’s previous Aubergine shop, which he ran for three years on Cadboro Bay Road: local produce, cheese, breads and meats, organic and kosher foods, as well as unusual items from South Africa, England and Italy.

A beautiful antique coffee grinder, which Zetler uses to grind organic fair trade beans from Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya, sits next to a state-of-the-art coffee roaster at the front of the store.

Zetler is the go-to guy for South African foods on Vancouver Island. “The cuisine has East Indian, Malaysian and Indonesian influences,” Zetler explains, pointing to shelves of spices and other treats from his homeland, such as biltong (coriander-spiced preservative-free beef jerky) and boerewors (spicy farmer’s sausage).

In the freezer, plump kosher chickens (the most flavourful chickens you will ever taste) nestle next to Cowichan Bay Seafood (including spot prawns and seafood chowders), sausages from the popular Fernwood restaurant Stage and handmade organic Salt Spring gelato.

An array of cheeses from Nanaimo’s Paradise Island and Courtenay’s Natural Pastures as well as Slater’s Meats, seasonal produce and other cool delicacies run the length of the store. “I go to Saanich farms several times a week to choose the produce myself,” says Zetler.

Aubergine carries house-made Moroccan-influenced appetizers, including baba ghanoush, carrot salad, roasted pepper salad, fennel salad and garlic-laced leek filets that melt in your mouth. A variety of sweets awaits the after-school and munchies crowd.

A young mother and her kids, who were standing by the register with a basketful of Aubergine goodies, summed up Fernwood’s delight in the new store: “Everyone has been so excited. This is exactly what we needed. We don’t have to go anywhere else to shop.”

Aubergine Specialty Foods is open Monday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 1308 Gladstone Ave., 250-590-1031, www.auberginefoods.ca.