Tuesday, October 29, 2019

[EXCLUSIVE] Souq Market to Open in Kennesaw But Could You Support It?

The owners of Souq International Market plan to bring  their Mediterranean groceries and ingredients from around the world to Kennesaw.  Featuring food and groceries from Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, among others, Souq opened their first store in May 2016 on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth.  The existing store is just over 15,000 square feet and occupies about half of an old grocery store in Pleasant Hill Point shopping center.  The Kennesaw outpost will be about 22,000 square feet and is opening place of the former Rec Warehouse at 2646 George Busbee Parkway near Town Center at Cobb.
Jordan Satary in front of the upcoming Souq in Katy, Texas

"Our store provides every item for your groceries, from Halal meat and poultry to fresh produce, dairy products, fresh bakery, sweets, and even a deli for true authentic Mediterranean cuisine.  Enjoy our authentic Mediterranean cuisine prepared with premium ingredients, complemented with our special blend of spices to bring you the unique taste."  

Permits filed with Cobb County indicate that about $400,000 will be spent converting the former pool, spa and billiards retailer into the grocery store and market.

The Kennesaw Souq will be the second to open in Georgia for the chain, but the third overall.  The owners of Souq announced earlier this summer that they plan to open a location in the Houston, Texas suburb of Katy later this fall.  The store, which promises to be less Mediterranean and more International, is currently slated to open in November.  The Katy store marks the third grocery to open in the 62,000 square foot anchor space along South Mason Road.  Houston-based Randalls first occupied the space, but closed in 2017.  Asian oriented grocer Z Tao Marketplace opened in the space last September, but less than a year later, it too was closed.

In Houston, Souq will compete with several other markets: Phoenicia Specialty Foods, with two large format stores in Houston, among them.  ToNeTo Atlanta tried Phoenicia in 2017 and fell in love with the prepared foods and other hard to find items.  

One might expect the man behind the growth of Souq to be an experienced grocer with years of experience and industry know how.  Instead, however, the founder of the grocery store as well as Sage Grill in Buford, is Jordan Satary, a 25 year old Lawrenceville area resident.  Satary, a 2015 graduate of Georgia State University, describes himself as an "entrepreneur and digital marketing evangelist," among other things.  One thing he is not, is self made.  

Satary's father, Khalid Satary, a convicted felon also known as "DJ Rock," was identified earlier this month in an in-depth report by the AJC where he is accused of defrauding Medicare out of $500 million billed for bogus lab tests, according to federal authorities.  The story, and others before it, chronicle Satary's shady past and questionable businesses and also highlight the fact that a significant amount of his real estate and financial holdings have been transferred either officially or unofficially to family members, his son Jordan among them.  

While we here at ToNeTo Atlanta love Mediterranean food and supporting local businesses, if only half of what Satary is accused of is true, we can't in good conscience support a business that is seemingly funded by fraud perpetrated on taxpayers and others. 

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a scoop! My friends what we have in Eli and Tonetoatl - is the Drudge Report of Atlanta. I love to see Eli get to the heart of a story. I wish you continued success.

AtlCREChris said...

I didn’t realize you were the judge and the jury, how about not passing judgement and reporting the news

Anonymous said...

I will support it. We need more diversity.

Anonymous said...

wow! just read the article, he is shady as hell!! Great job Eli!

Anonymous said...

do they carry anything from Israel? if not, it's definitely a no-go from me.

Anonymous said...

I think everyone needs to wait until you have proof that the son/family is involved..I don't think the son inherits his father's crimes unless he is involved and willing knew about and did nothing to stop it.

Anonymous said...

Come on TNA, you know better than this. Report the facts of what you report - openings and closures, not passing judgments. If we wanted that, we'd be reading other sites. Or you want us to leave?

RichKnobSales said...

Wow. What could I do with Daddy's money???? Hmmmm....

RichKnobSales said...

OH wait - my Daddy didn't HAVE money!

Anonymous said...

"I think everyone needs to wait until you have proof that the son/family is involved"

Where do you think this money is coming from? It is blood money stolen from people. You can't be this naive can you? The father is also transferring assets into the sons name that were also you guessed it STOLEN!!!! He knows and is complicit in all this.

Anonymous said...

@ October 30, 2019 at 4:16 PM

empty threat. leave then ... Not your blog.

Anonymous said...

You obviously don't understand the purpose of a blog. Lol, smh.

Anonymous said...

He is 25 years old! Where do you think the money came from??? Did the win the lottery??

Talk about blind ...

Love yea Eli!

Anonymous said...

He is big part of the game from the A to Z, they took a lot of inocent people’s money, opened big businesses with it, drove nice cars, luxury homes, private jets, vacations
etc.. Casino gambling etc.. with peoples money in addition to the insurance scam money, and left people Devastating and in trouble with loans and lost life savings. We know for fact the situation. Please don’t be stupid and Defence if u don’t know the case. We know people who lost their ass with them.
They took their money and when they gotten busted with the fraud, they claimed they lost everything , while still openings big business everywhere. Big time crooks

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