Kosher Grocer Expands in Florida
KC Market, a kosher supermarket in Hollywood, Florida, has opened a second Florida location in a former Publix supermarket in Boynton Beach, and has plans for a third store in nearby Hallandale Beach.
The new, 40,000-square-foot Boynton Beach space will also include two kosher restaurants, the company said. Both the Hollywood and Hallandale Beach locations measure about 10,000 square feet.
The company, formerly known as Kosher Central, was founded in 2009 by owner Yossi Gopin. The stores offer an expansive assortment that includes a bakery, service meat and seafood departments, poultry, produce, prepared foods, and more. A key feature of the KC Market concept is the array of independently operated branded sections within the stores, such as the Ike’s Bagels department offering prepared breakfast items, and a Shlomi’s Hummus station with sandwiches, burekas, and other prepared foods.
“We’re a big store, but we still have that boutique feeling, because we have these concept stores,” Gopin said in an interview on YouTube with Prairie Street Co., which provides high-end kosher meat for the stores.
Gopin said he plans to work with the same vendors as he expands with additional stores.
He also recently launched a new video series on social media called Spotlight on KC in which he is showcasing a different store department each week. The inaugural episode featured an interview and baking demonstration with Mendel Rubashkin, the owner of The Artisan Loaf, which makes baked goods for the stores.
Rubashkin “epitomizes what KC is all about,” said Gopin in the video. “He’s a boutique owner-operator that lives and breathes his product, is passionate about it, loves what he does, and lives it, and we love having people like him in our business.”
The second episode focuses on the Heimish section of the prepared foods department at the Hollywood store, in which Gopin interviews Shimmy Schwartz, culinary director. (Heimish means “home-style” and includes a variety of traditional Jewish foods.)
The stores also offer a variety of other prepared foods, including tacos and sushi, as well as a catering department.
In the interview with Prairie Street Co., Gopin said that the new store in Boynton Beach is in an area that currently lacks kosher grocery options, but it has a growing Jewish population.
“I’m a believer in that area,” he said.
A grand opening for the store is scheduled for Sunday, April 7.
Gopin moved to Florida from New York about 19 years ago to manage a produce business, and then managed a farmers’ market in Hallandale Beach for about three years before the space for the first KC Market in Hollywood became available, he said in the Prairie Street Co. video.