Farewell to Holyland Market on St. Mark's Place

Photos yesterday by Stacie Joy 

Holyland Market is now certified closed. 

As we first reported on March 14, the Israeli grocery at 122 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue was closing at the end of this month after 18 years in business. 

Moving forward, owner Eran Hileli (pictured below) will focus his time and attention on his blossoming hummus business — the 4-year-old Holy Hummus, now available at 700-plus stores in the United States, including locally at Westside Market and Union Market. He said he is introducing 12 new products/flavors, including spicy w/red s'chüg, roasted pepper, roasted garlic, za'atar flavored and green s'chüg.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the shuttered shop yesterday ... as Hileli continued to clean out the space...

In a previous interview with Stacie, Hileli said he had challenges finding help and felt burned out after working through the pandemic. He was also unable to find a buyer for the market. 

While we're happy that Hileli has found success with his hummus (and it is delicious), we hate to lose yet another unique shop in the neighborhood — and in NYC. 

As The Times of Israel recently noted: 

Expats could score their favorite products from home at Holyland, down to lavender-scented Pinuk hair conditioner and the Friday edition of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, in a store that felt like it could be located in Tel Aviv or Ashkelon — a Middle Eastern parallel to New York City’s beloved bodegas.

Holyland Market is closing on St. Mark's Place; owner to focus on hummus biz

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Holyland Market, the Israeli grocery at 122 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue, closes at the end of the month after 18 years in business. 

Moving forward, owner Eran Hileli (pictured above and below) will focus his time and attention on his blossoming hummus business — the 4-year-old Holy Hummus, now available at 700-plus stores in the United States, including locally at Westside Market, Union Market — and Holyland Market. (He said he has 12 new products/flavors on the horizon, including spicy w/red s'chüg, roasted pepper, roasted garlic, za'atar flavored and green s'chüg.)

In an interview with EVG contributor Stacie Joy, Hileli said that he was having challenges finding help and felt burned out after working through the pandemic. (He was also unable to find a buyer for the market.)

From Friday, here's a look around the shop, stocked almost entirely with Israeli products ... 

Hileli first opened a record store — House of Trance — at this location in 1998 before pivoting to the market. 

As he told The Times of Israel in an August 2020 feature: 

"The industry was changing. People weren’t really buying music anymore," he lamented, saying customers would enter the store, listen to music and then go home to purchase it on the computer. "But you can’t download Bamba," he joked, explaining his decision to start selling the peanut butter-flavored puffed corn snack along with the hundreds of other Israeli products that line Holyland's shelves.