Mint Is Moving Across the Street to Larger Quarters

Eight years after opening at the corner of Main Street and John Street in Tarrytown, Mint Premium Foods will pack up lock, stock and bottles and relocate across the street to 19 Main Street. The new space is four times the size of Mint's present premises. The move is tentatively scheduled for late September.

"This expansion," owner Hassan Jarane said, "finally makes inside dining possible."

Operating hours for Mint will be extended with lunch and dinner service offered every day except Monday, and brunch served on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The dining area will have two communal-style, long wooden tables. 

"Our brunch won't be just a traditional eggs-and-omelet type of brunch," Jarane said. "The menu will be more creative, more fun and will break conventional brunch rules. Brunch will be partly Mediterranean influenced."

The menu will include chicken, seafood, roast lamb, steak and brisket. Specials, posted in chalk on a blackboard, will change daily and include baby back ribs with homemade barbecue sauce. Beer and wine will be available with meals and hot chocolate made with Valrhone chocolate will be offered during cooler weather.

The dining tables are being constructed from reclaimed timber obtained from Stone Barns. A merchandise counter, shelving and a back window are also being built from the same type of lumber.

Original ceiling tile, more than a century old, has been retained, cleaned and restored. Exposed red brick walling adds to the old country look of the establishment.

The store is literally crammed with food-related products, merchandise and beverages. Mint stocks food items imported from all corners of the globe. Transporting all this across the street will be a daunting task.

Treating customers (waiting on line for their orders to be filled) to shaved cheese samples and other goodies is a long standing tradition. 

Of the many hundreds of food and kitchen items for sale here, among the most popular are: 

• Imported cured meats
• Candies and desserts. Cookies, roasted candied-honey pecans, dried vanilla cherries, thin black licorice, dark chocolate, halavah from Israel, Turkish Delight (lokum)
• Bread. Flavorful ciabatta bread, priced at $3.75, available every day at 11 a.m.
• Beverages. Belgium beer, other imported beer and wine from Europe and Chile
• Chicken. Customers usually order rotisserie chicken by phone a day in advance and specify a pickup time.
• Cheese. Aged Italian picurino cheese with truffle, carmelized-onion cheese, goat cheese with potato from Holland, goat cheese with honey from Belgium and a new cheese with lavender and herbs from the Swiss Alps
• Honey. Imported from France, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain 
• Salads. A popular one is calamari with seaweed and lemongrass
• Miscellaneous. Olive oil, olives, pasta, sea salt, 15-year-old vinegar, crackers, jams, nuts

Jarane is a native of Casablanca, Morocco. Hassan, his wife Alberta and sons Miles and Khalil, are residents of Sleepy Hollow.

Mint Premium Foods, 19 Main Street, Tarrytown, NY, 914-703-6511.