Tashkent Supermarket
Welcome to the flagship Tashneck, er, Tashkent supermarket! This tiny market, opened in 2017 in a former Mandee clothing store on a very busy corner of Brighton Beach, started what's now a tiny empire of Uzbek food markets. It was just 8,000 square feet, and mostly under the elevated subway tracks. Well, if this store is still open, why am I talking about it in the past tense? The grocer has just completed a major renovation of this location, doubling the size by expanding into a neighboring Walgreens -- and that's the storefront you see above.
Now, the space at around 16,000 square feet (more if there's a basement) isn't huge, but it feels comparatively palatial compared to the tiny, overcrowded corner market. And let's be clear about something: this store does a BIG business. That's abundantly clear. Tashkent is an Uzbek grocer, and there's a large central Asian population in this part of Brooklyn including Uzbek and Russian.
So what we're standing in here is the former Walgreens. Prepared foods service counters and fresh food bars line the left side of this space, including salads and plov, a signature Uzbek dish that's kind of between fried rice and biryani. There are a few small grocery aisles at the back, with an expansive produce department and the registers taking up the rest of the Walgreens space.
At the back of the old Walgreens is this dairy case and a wooden shelving unit for bread...
...and this isn't even the bread department. It looks like these are flatbreads baked in-store.
The turnover here must be just enormous, so the produce all looked spectacular. Below is an overview of the former Walgreens side of things...
...and now we pass into the original market side of things, where the centerpiece is even more prepared food bars. Salads, entrees, vegetables, savory pastries, desserts, things I've never seen or heard of...
Dairy now lines the left side of the original supermarket, which goes farther back than the Walgreens space (I'm betting that's because of prep space needed for all this fresh food).
At the back of the original supermarket space, there's a large halal butcher and a selection of bulk nuts and dried fruits...
The registers and exit are also back here, but the deli and bakery counters line the right side wall of the store. There's a large bread counter up at the front.
Looking up towards the front of the store, you can see the lengthy buffets.
The massive selection of ready-to-eat food -- all made fresh in-house -- is significant enough that it even got the attention of Eater New York critic Ryan Sutton (who's now writing his own publication, incidentally). It was the first supermarket that Eater reviewed, and it's not hard to tell why when you see how food service-focused this place is.
A massive deli and bakery counter -- just look at those stacks of cheese! -- lines the right-side wall of the original supermarket.
Baked goods are split into two, with desserts here on the side wall and breads and coffee in their own section up front. You can see the other entrance door between them.
And what a majestic selection of breads it is...
Though I haven't bought a whole lot at this store (or other Tashkents) it does seem like their products are of very high quality. I mean, just look at this display of tomatoes I spotted on my way out...
And here, you can see the new (left) and old (right) sections of the supermarket out on the street.
Let's take a walk through the store back in April of 2024, before the expansion started and while the Walgreens was even still in business.
That entrance between the two bakery counters was the only entrance, and the exit in the back by the registers was the only exit.
Produce took up the front part of the sales floor, with grocery and dairy in the back. The deli, prepared foods, and butcher sections didn't move in the renovation, for the most part.
The desserts were beautiful then and are beautiful now...
Aside from some minor cosmetic changes, the deli-bakery area still looks about the same. Since this store isn't even 10 years old yet, there wasn't a whole lot to be done except expand.
The registers in the back-right corner of the store, and the exit out the back, are visible below.
The meat department also got some cosmetic changes, but mostly has stayed the same.
And dairy is in the same place, except for the fact that it's now slightly shorter to accommodate the doorway into the expansion.
You can see why they needed to expand. I try to get pictures without people in them, but that was impossible here.
Heading back up towards the front of the store...
You can see the produce department used to be much smaller, but no less meticulously organized.
And the bread counter hasn't changed much, either.
As we circle back, here's a look at the plov counters up at the front, which have been moved into the expansion.
And one last look at the giant deli...
Now of course, I couldn't visit Tashkent without sampling the local fare. Here's what I got!
A delicious dumpling with some kind of spinach thing inside. No idea what it was called.
A fried croquette of some sort with chicken inside. Also delicious!
Oooh look, we're going to end with a dish I actually remember the name of -- samsa! It's a common Central Asian savory pastry with a filling, in this case beef. The outside is flaky and buttery, a bit like a croissant, while the inside has a beef-and-vegetable filling similar to what you might find inside an Eastern Asian dumpling (though, of course, the seasonings are different). Here's my advice: If you ever find yourself at a Tashkent Supermarket -- or, heck, in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan -- just try some stuff, it'll almost certainly be delicious whether you know what you're eating or not. Don't miss the rest of this weekend's posts here!
Opened: 2017
Owner: Odiljon Tursunov
Previous Tenants: Mandee/Walgreens
Cooperative: none
Location: 713 Brighton Beach Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Photographed: April 5, 2024 and May 29, 2026
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