CP Photograph: Jared Wickerham
Abdullah Salem, proprietor and CEO of Salem’s Market and Grill, poses for a portrait within the Strip District.
Massaud Salem opened Salem’s Market and Grill 40 years in the past to make prime quality halal produce accessible and inexpensive at a time when Pittsburgh supplied few different choices.
Right now, his son Abdullah says nothing has modified.
“I’ve all the time been with him, I’ve all the time been his understudy,” Salem says. “The entire foundation of the enterprise is to verify individuals have entry to recent, wholesome, inexpensive meals.”
This precept, pursued steadily over a number of many years, led metropolis officers this yr to declare July 17 Abdullah Salem Day in Pittsburgh. The enterprise additionally introduced plans to open a second location within the Hill District, the place they’ve pledged to serve the neighborhood with the identical mission that made them a Strip District establishment.
To Salem, operating a meat and produce retailer has by no means been about producing wild earnings. As an alternative, he says it’s a solution to give again.
From its earliest days, many consumers have been immigrants who Salem says are sometimes susceptible and brought benefit of by different retailers who incessantly promote overseas imports effectively above retail value. Salem has employed 5 Afghan refugees this yr and incessantly distributes free meat and groceries to new arrivals within the type of a welcome field.
“If you serve meals within the metropolis, you’re uniquely intermeshed with individuals’s lives, and also you see the challenges individuals are going through of their neighborhood,” Salem says.
Salem’s Market & Grill. 2923 Penn Ave, Strip District. salemsmarketgrill.com
