Foodie Asylum Brings Artisan Food To Brookline Village

BROOKLINE, MA — There's a new foodie in town. Six weeks ago the small shop opened quietly in the space formerly occupied by Brookline Upolstery on Cypress Street. The newly renovated space, complete with sunlight pouring in from a skylight and the front windows once packed with furniture, now distinctly minimalist has a very "Instagramable" feel.

Tatyana Souza from Coolidge Corner Yoga stopped by when she saw the sign, "I was hoping it was going to be an awesome vegan cafe, but this is pretty cool," she said saddling up to the register to make a purchase.

The shop - which has been more than a year in the works - joins the likes of the Boston General Store on Harvard and Green Line Grown on Pleasant Street and focuses on artisan gifts. It is full of things like plantable pencils, she holds one that's got cilantro seeds in it. When it's finished its useful life as a pencil, you plant it and it grows. She sells things like organic dog treats, honey, and tea. But the owner's favorite item right now are the handmade kalamata pistachio brittle she gets from an artisan in Brooklyn, NY. "I just love that everything has a story," she says. "It's like art."

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Owner Sella Abalian says she has always been passionate about design and about the look and feel and the stories behind things. And she's especially interested in sustainable goods. She moved to New England almost a quarter century ago from Montreal, she worked in interior design for years before deciding to open an online shop and then moved to open a physical space. "There's no personal involvement in an online business," she says. "Here you can come in and pick out what you like, touch it, hear its back story and have it wrapped," says the Lexington resident.

"I come from entrepreneurial family, so it's in our blood," Abalian says simply.

She says the shop is for everyone, not just foodies, but in a special nod to how addicting it can be to be a foodie - always on the hunt for quality artisan food she named her shop the Foodie Asylum. Still, she wants to help educate people to know it's not just the jam that they're buying but there's much that goes into it from beginning to end.

Her shop focuses on showcasing small artisans with an eye for customers looking for the perfect -unique- gift. "Food seems to be something that can make everyone happy," she says. "And here we have unusual food, you have to be willing to be a little daring, to try new things to shop here," she says with a twinkle in her eye.

In the coming months she plans to host a breakfast with a nutritionist perhaps a zumba class and other workshops that could potentially help educate folks who are interested. On May 24, though she's hosting a terrarium building workshop in the space.

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/ Patch Reporter