The Owner of Brooklyn’s Edy’s Grocer Shares How Meeting Local Needs Spurred His Success

Edy Massih signed his first customer at 22 when he launched his New York-based catering business. Despite its rapid success, he had to shut down just four years later—when the global COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on the events that his business supported, like weddings. But the self-motivated entrepreneur didn’t waste time figuring out a next step. He already had his finger on the pulse of what his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, neighborhood might need.

“I was cooking a lot of Lebanese food, but starting to run out of my ingredients,” he says. Realizing the only grocers for Middle Eastern ingredients in the area were too far away, he had a light-bulb moment, he says. “Why not open a Middle Eastern grocer to serve north Brooklyn, since we don’t have one?”  

A friend and local proprietor had a brick-and-mortar space, and the two had discussed Massih taking it over when she retired. In the pandemic, she decided to close the business sooner than planned, so he took it and launched Edy’s Grocer. Massih—who is Lebanese—demonstrated a keen ability to sense what his neighbors wanted, and the spot was popular from the start, garnering coverage in both local and national press. “At that time, people were cooking from home more, so a grocer made sense,” Massih says. “I added a coffee window because people didn’t want to go inside.” Realizing people also wanted a break from cooking but couldn’t dine out, he launched with to-go food—and then evolved as the city slowly reopened.

“When we opened up, everyone was working from home, so we got a huge lunch rush,” he says. That died down with return-to-office mandates—but then customers transitioned to coming in, sitting down and staying a while. Massih’s team responded by removing a large deli fridge to make room for a bar and table seating, and adding items like hot shawarma and salmon bowls to the menu. “We have a great community, so whatever we do, they’ve always been there for us,” he says.

Today, catering is back on the books and driving a substantial portion of the business. All this evolution and growth in a short time has meant Massih had to revisit his back-of-house systems and operations, and figure out what he could delegate. He invested in restaurant software that could streamline online orders, saving him on emails and speeding up order processing.

Those new platforms meant managing new costs. “There are systems for every single thing out there, and I don’t have it in me to pay $500 for this, $200 for that,” he says. But for the platforms he did purchase, “it came down to, ‘do you want to save on time or the cost?’” and in the end, he paid to save the time.

While adopting those new systems, Massih noticed that he wasn’t handling much cash, estimating that 99% of customers use credit cards to pay, both in-person and with online orders. “Everyone has credit cards; you just have to build those fees into your costs to operate.” 

He’s trained his staff to run day-to-day operations of Edy’s Grocer. When it comes to the catering, though, he still manages the business directly. “The customer care that’s needed is so different from when it’s in the store versus someone coming to you [to cater] their 50th birthday or an anniversary,” he says. “These are bigger life points that you’re a part of, and it requires a different level of detail. My handling that helps keep the customer coming back—and that’s what’s really grown my business.”

At the same time, he’s invested in business coaching to help him support his team. “I know how to run a business—but running a team is a whole other thing,” he says. While he admits it's still a work in progress, he’s also proud that most of his team has been with him since he first hired them. People familiar with the restaurant industry and New York City will know that’s a rarity. “I feel very, very lucky because of that,” he says. “You’ve got to treat people really well to keep them that long.”

Massih cares a lot about burnout, noting it’s a concern throughout the restaurant and hospitality industry. He prioritizes mental health for both himself and his employees. For instance, to help support the team, he closes Edy’s Grocer for two weeks in August every year. He pays full-time employees during those weeks, and finds that having the entire staff off at the same time helps keep the team from feeling resentful or overloaded when covering for colleagues taking off throughout the year. “This way, everyone’s excited together, asking what everyone else’s plans are, and we have a countdown,” he says. He chose this time of year because it’s a general dead space for both the industry and the catering business. 

“It’s a great reset,” he says. “Those first two weeks when we reopen are our busiest weeks, because our customers are so excited we’re back.”

Massih also published his first cookbook, Keep It Zesty, earlier this year to wide acclaim. "It meant a lot to me to put my story out there,” Massih says. “The recipes are the fun part, what we make every day at the Grocer and a lot of what I grew up doing. It’s a celebration of who I am and my culture.”

Going on tour with the book allowed Massih to expand to a larger community—he was surprised by the fan base he had outside of New York. He connected with people in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and more who told him they’d been following Edy’s Grocer’s account, had watched it grow—and now could make that food at home, thanks to the book. “It’s a different type of connection and a different type of community,” Massih says of the experience.

“You know, I did this all on my own—I didn't have any investors or anyone helping me out; I just went for it,” he says. When he saw the impact the store and the book had across the country, “it made all the hard work worth it.”