After Disastrous 2020, Levittown Food Market Reopens

Firat Kilic, 18, of Levittown, stocks fresh bread in the bakery section of Euro Food Market.
Credit: Maxwell Reil/LevittownNow.com

On a recent Saturday afternoon along Haines Road in Bristol Township, Firat Kilic, 18, of Levittown, was stocking the walls of the Euro Food Market, organizing tea biscuits and Turkish chocolates. After that he mades his way to the store’s bakery section and unloads multiple bags of fresh bread.

The store is quiet, but the employees were all smiles. And for good reason. The store has come a long way since the beginning of 2020.

On January 7 of last year, an electrical fire caused serious damage to the international foods store as well as its neighboring stores. Firefighters were called to the store in the Kenwood Shopping Center in the 1500 block of Haines Road in the Levittown section around 12:45 a.m. They arrived to find heavy fire and smoke coming from the storefront.

Fast forward to this past weekend, and Store Manager Figen Kartal was all smiles and laughs with her employees. While no injuries were reported from the fire, the store needed complete renovation.

And then COVID-19 happened.

“We thought maybe we could not open again. And then when we tried to fix everything and then the coronavirus happens and everything was closed. It was crazy,” Kartal said.

Luckily, the owners were able to renovate the entire store and add a new bakery section that was not there prior to the fire. The store officially reopened in December.

Kartal said the forced closure interrupted the lives of many Turkish Levittown-area residents.

“Our Turkish and Albanian and Bosnian customers no longer had a place where they could buy their food. We are one of the only stores like this, so when we were closed they would have to drive to New Jersey to shop for groceries,” Kartal said.

Kartal said old customers began returning in December, and new customers were stopping by to see what the bakery had to offer.

Fresh bread, baklava, kanafeh and other Turkish deserts lined the walls at the front of the store. Mountains of marshmallow bunnies and lollipops stretched toward the ceiling.

In the back of the store were Turkish meats of every variety, with an employee behind the counter wrapping sirloin steaks and lamb chops. After a difficult 2020, Kartal has high expectations for 2021. She said that the owners of the market just recently opened up another bakery on Route 13 across from the Dallas Diner. While the sign is not yet up, they are open from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. for residents to stop in and grab a pastry before heading off to work.

The Euro Foods Market is open every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., even on holidays.

Kartal said she and her employees – a total of five of them – are ready to work.

“Every day, 365 days this year, we will be open,” she said. As she instructs Firat Kilic to stock more bread for a busy Saturday, Kartal said she is optimistic.

“We’re expecting big business and continuing returning customers in 2021. We’re expecting a good year,” she said with a smile.