Metro Roundup: International grocery store coming to Lorna Road

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit hard in March, Hoover resident Hadi Sultan and one of his sons began having trouble getting halal meat for the Pakistani and Indian restaurant they own in The Plaza at Riverchase.

Halal meat is meat that is prepared in accordance with Islamic law.

The shortage opened Sultan’s eyes to a business opportunity, prompting him to open a grocery store in Hoover that specializes in Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern food and drinks.

The store, called Alabama Halal Foods International, is at 3150 Lorna Road, Suite 108, in a 3,800-square-foot spot formerly occupied by People’s Choice Discount Catering, next to the Hoover Police Operations Center.

Sultan hopes to have the grocery open by the end of the year.

The new store will be a supply source for their restaurant, Kabob-Licious Indo-Pak Grill, but also will help serve a growing demand for Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern food in the Birmingham-Hoover area, he said.

It sometimes can be particularly difficult to find halal meat, Sultan said. There are a couple of international markets in Homewood that carry it, as well as Jubilee Groceries in the Village on Lorna, but Alabama Halal Foods will have more Mediterranean options than Jubilee Groceries, he said.

For those who are unfamiliar, Islamic law requires that for meat to be acceptable for eating (halal), it must come from animals that were alive at the time they were slaughtered, and all blood must have been drained from the carcass. Also, the animal must be slaughtered with a cut to the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe, and the meat must be dedicated in the name of Allah before the slaughter takes place.

The meat must not come from pigs, boars, dogs, snakes, monkeys, carnivorous animals with claws and fangs (such as lions, tigers and bears), birds of prey with claws, rats, woodpeckers, mules, domestic donkeys, poisonous and hazardous aquatic animals, and animals that live on both land and water (such as frogs and crocodiles).

Sultan said his grocery will specialize in goat, lamb, beef and chicken that comes fresh from Atlanta twice a week and fresh fish from the Gulf of Mexico three times a week.

Many of the other grocery items will be sourced from the United States, but Alabama Halal Foods International also will carry Basmati rice (a long-grain rice from India and Pakistan) and spices and soft drinks from India, Pakistan and the Middle East, Sultan said.

There is a growing group of people from those countries in the Birmingham area, especially in Hoover, Sultan said.

But he said his primary target market is Americans. Seventy percent of the customers at Kabob-Licious are American, he said.

Sultan originally is from Pakistan, where he was in the leather clothing business. He and his family moved to the United States in 1998 due to riots and violence associated with political and ethnic disputes, he said. He and his wife, Zubeda, opened a restaurant called Taste of Pakistan in Euless, Texas, in 1999. They sold the restaurant in 2004 to focus on dollar stores and cell phone stores they owned.

In 2006, they moved to Hoover and went into the convenience store business. They currently own Citgo gas stations in Hayden and Bremen. They have three sons, two of whom are married, and four grandchildren.

Sultan said he loves living in Hoover and believes there is a lot of opportunity here.