I just came back from shopping for cheese and pate at the little shop that could, the newly enlarged D’Vine Taste on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll.

For years,
D’Vine Taste was Park Slope’s slightly tepid answer to Zabars. At one time, it was practically the only place in the neighborhood you could get gourmet cheeses, sliced meats, pate, cornichons, a huge selection of olive oil and beers. It was also a great source of homemade middle-eastern specialties like pita bread, tabouli, babaganoush, tahini, and spinach pie. They also had a great selection of spices, dried fruits and nuts sold by the pound.

The smaller D’Vine Tastewas a classic Seventh Avenue establishment: quirky, idiosyncratic, eccentric. They did it their way. It wasn’t the most convenient place to shop or the most comprehensive but we loved it because it was ours.

With the expansion, I am thrilled that D’Vine Taste decided to fight the big guys in their own way. They’ve been in this neighborhood for 18 years and were there for Park Slope when there was nothing else.  

They were there for us, and now it’s our turn to be there for them. And it seems that the neighborhood is coming through.
I asked one of the owners, the tall bearded man, how things were going. 

"We’re going crazy."  he said. "So many people are coming in. It’s good."
"Were you planning the expansion for a long time," I asked.
"For years and years," he said. More than five years," he added.
"So why didn’t you do it sooner?"
"The lady who owns the building wouldn’t rent it to us. She only wanted to rent to Koreans," he said.

The following is some history of the storefront now occupied by D’Vine Taste as told to me by the tall beared man (whose name I don’t know). I didn’t have my notebook with me so I am paraphrasing here. But my memory is good.

According to the tall bearded man, prior to 2000, the space was a laudromat for many years. But in 2000, the laundromat closed and the owner of the building was unwilling to rent to non-Koreans.
Instead, she rented it to some Asians who then rented it to a 99 Cents Store, which was actually owned by Palestineans.

According to the tall, bearded man, the owners of the 99 Cemt Store rarely paid their rent. The owner of the building took them to court many times. They’d pay a few months rent then stop paying again. This went on for five years. Finally, the landlord got them out. Or the Marshals did. And the store was empty for months.

The tall, bearded man asked the owner of that building many times if she’d be willing to rent it to them. But she said, she’d never rent to Arabs again. He suggested she talk to his landlord. "Our landlord told her that we’ve been here for 18 years and we always pay our rent EARLY. We never call them when there is a leak, or a problem. We take care of it ourself. We have NEVER given him any problem."

Still, she would not rent it to them. "In one of our conversations, I said to her: ‘Look at your hand, are all your fingers the same?’ And she said ‘no.’ STILL she wouldn’t rent us the storefront."

The owners of D’Vine Taste were desparate to expand, the knew that the shop could not stay the way it was. In time, they did find a 3000 sq. ft. space on Seventh Avenue above 9th Street and put a 6-month deposit down and began planning a massive renovation.

One day, the tall, bearded man was walking down Seventh, coming back from the new location when he ran into the Korean landlord.
"Do you still want to rent the store?" she asked him. "’We just put down 6 months rent,’ I told her, ‘and we are about to begin fixing up the new store. I wish you had asked me sooner.’" he told me. 

Still, they longed to expand their original location. So the tall, bearded man spoke with his sister and they decided that even if they had to kiss their $60,000 deposit good- bye what they really wanted to do was stay in the same location and expand. And that is  what they did.

The Korean landlord made them promise to do no cooking in her storefront. "I told her we would not. We have a huge kitchen in the other store," he pointed to the other side of the expanded shop. In the back of the new storefront is a gigantic storage refrigerator with an enormous quantity of in it.

I could tell that he feels really good about that decision. And it’s great to see them in their newly expanded digs. The shop is huge, spacious and attractive in a simple way with lovely brick walls. They now have 240 varieties of cheese and are about to feature over 100 different kinds of olives. In every way, they are offering more and better food items.

I hope the new D’Vine Taste can survive the coming onslaught of the large, customer oriented giants — Whole Foods, Fairway, and Trader Joes. Already there’s Union Market, and Blue Apron. But you can’t say they aren’t prepared to go head to head with the big- name grocery Goliaths. 

Yes, it might be easier and faster to shop at some of these other places – but  it won’t be as fun or site specific to Seventh Avenue. 18 years they’ve been here. 18years. I’d miss saying hello to the nice woman with the skunk gray hair and the tall bearded man who was so nice today telling me in such detail the story of his store’s journey.
I for one am pleased and moved that they did it and will do my part by shopping there for some of the gourmet items that are staples around here.