TOURING THE TASTY RUSSIAN & ARMENIAN GOODIES AT ROYAL MARKET & BAKERY

The Bold Italic
March 12 2015

by Jessica Lachenal
Mar 12 at 9am

Deep within San Francisco’s Richmond District stands an unassuming
gem of a grocer. Looking at it from the outside, you’d be forgiven
for mistaking it as just another corner store. But the Royal Market
& Bakery, which serves primarily Armenian and Russian groceries and
baked goods, has earned an avid following since opening in 2008.

While the Armenian and Russian communities in San Francisco are fairly
large, I wondered how this particular shop has managed to do so well.

The store has been able to keep a loyal base of repeat customers from
all over the Bay, managing to stick around in a neighborhood that
has no shortage of Russian and Eastern European markets and bakeries.

Royal Market is one of the best in its class, a standing confirmed
by word of mouth that travels from friends and Richmond locals.

As I learned during a recent visit, it takes more than just fresh
groceries and a smile to keep people coming back, especially in a
city where shopping services like Instacart, Google Express, and
AmazonFresh fight for your dollar.

Angela Volkovich, the store’s general manager, explains that while
the Royal Market has earned a reputation for serving somewhat rare
products, like its award-winning marinated lula kebab meats or its
trademark puri bread, the store has mostly been able to keep its
customers coming back because of its adaptability. “When we started,
we didn’t know much about having a market. But we kept getting
recommendations, and we learned from them,” she says.

On the afternoon I’m talking to her, the market is fairly busy and
Angela greets many of the customers as regulars. As they pass by,
she stops our conversation to make sure to say hello. Most of them
she knows personally; she chats a bit, then we continue on.

We spend a good part of the afternoon walking around the market,
greeting employees, talking about the different products. I keep
asking her, “What else do you have that I wouldn’t be able to find
anywhere else?” Angela rises to the challenge, proudly showing off
some of her most favorite items in the store.

Here’s a sampling of those hard-to-find things that the Royal Market
sells.

Puri

Puri is an Armenian bread, a close cousin of matnakash and very
reminiscent of naan. You roll it around cheese or other vegetables,
or dip it into hummus. Since puri is a bit smaller than matnakash,
it tends to get harder quicker, so make sure you eat it soon after
purchase.

“Nobody else in the city sells puri, not like this,” Angela says. She
mentions that her award-winning version is baked three times a day,
every day. We pass by racks upon racks of the bread and watch as a
fresh batch is rolled out onto the floor in a free-moving cart draped
with plastic coverings designed to keep the bread warm and fresh.

Gata

Angela leads me over to the hot food and bakery section and discusses
Royal Market’s desserts. Alongside the traditional baklava and cakes
is something called gata, which is a semisweet, almost savory pastry.

She offers a piece, and it crumbles and flakes as I bite into it, the
sugary flavor coming through at the end. It is a lot like a layered
butter cookie, and Jane, the in-house baker, whips up batches of gata
fresh every day.

Lamb Lula

After the bakery, we walk over to the butcher counter and Angela points
out Royal Market’s lamb lula. It’s a pre-marinated mixture of lamb
meat and “special ingredients.” When I press Angela for more details,
she just gives me a conspiratorial wink. “Secret Armenian spices,”
she says.

Saint Gregor 50-Year Brandy

Angela comments on one of the bottles on the Market’s expansive liquor
shelf: “We shared one of these bottles not too long ago,” she says,
nodding. “It was really something.”

Russian Standard Vodka

Angela gestures to the store’s wall of vodkas, which are impressively
propped up against a window facing the street. Here you have your
standard Smirnoffs, some Stolichnaya, and many different brands in
between. There are a few bottles with names in a script I couldn’t
read. When I asked which was her favorite, I expected Angela to talk
up the bottles with the foreign script, but she pointed to the Russian
Standard Vodka. “It’s just the smoothest,” she says.

Lahmajun

Angela takes me back to the kitchen where all the food is made.

There’s a group of chefs prepping fresh vegetables. She explains that
they’re getting ready to make some lahmajun. “It’s basically Armenian
pizza,” she says.

Beluga Banquet Hall

No, the Royal Market doesn’t sell beluga. Beluga is a banquet hall
located next to the store. Angela takes us through the space, which
is set up for a party that night. The tables are decked out, the bar
is fully stocked. Angela pulls out her phone and shows me photos of
the events that have taken place here, along with all the catered food.

“Sturgeon, smoked salmon, Armenian cold cuts, and everything from
next door,” she says.

Angela obviously takes great pride in the Royal Market & Bakery,
because of its food, but also because much of that food is based on
the relationships she has cultivated with her customers. As I watch
her interact with the regulars and new shoppers, I realize that she’s
running more than a market. This store doubles as a community hub for
a lot of these people, a regular place for them to see each other and
be seen. It’s these kinds of personal and cultural bonds that take a
standard grocer and turn it into a community staple for a neighborhood
like the Richmond.

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All photos by Jessica Lachenal except lahmacun (Wikimedia Commons)
and Beluga Banquet Hall (used with permission from Beluga SF / Royal
Market and Bakery).