One evening last week I happened to be walking north on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side and relieved to see Eretz Kosher Deli with an “Open” sign in its window.  I interviewed owner Gemma Datuin a few years back for my column in AM New York. After our meeting she wrote me the sweetest, most heart-felt letter to thank me for my time and interest in her story.  I still have her note. 

With the many noticeable small business closings over the past two years in New York City, it was nice to see that this mom and pop deli is still making it. I had my doubts, as I do with any start-up in New York City. The Big Apple is cut throat. But the Upper West Side neighborhood has embraced Eretz and while neighboring businesses have come and gone, this merchant has somehow kept head above water. Gemma, by the way, received a micro loan from ACCION New York to help launch her business – a smart move!

Here’s my old story in full below. Congratulations to Gemma and all the thriving NYC small business owners out there!

Her credit line’s kosher: Jewish-Filipino entrepreneur goes from meshuggeneh to microloan maven

By Farnoosh Torabi – Special to amNewYork

Eretz Deli
692 Columbus Ave. (between 93rd and 94th streets)
212-665-0953

In 1999, Gemma Datuin lived in her native Philippines, attended church on Sundays with her husband, and on the weekdays ran her own business selling home-decorative items like wooden picture frames and scented candles.

Fast forward six years and Datuin is living in Astoria, Queens. She is single, goes by the name Yaela and now prays in a Jewish temple.

The 41-year-old came to the United States newly divorced, searching for “meaning to life.” And, she adds, “I was meshuggeneh,” using the Yiddish word for crazy. “I just didn’t think of my past or the norm.”

Datuin has held on to one facet of her past life, her entrepreneurial spirit. For two years she has run Eretz Kosher Specialty Store on Columbus Avenue, a business she describes as a marriage between her lifelong passion for food and her new religion.

She takes pride in her menu items for cleverly blending Jewish and Asian traditions. Upper West Side neighbors especially enjoy her Philippine Beef Stew and General Y’s Chicken, her popular version of the spicy General Tso’s.

She calls her conversion to Judaism a work of God but says taking over the kosher deli was more like a leap of faith.

Aside from convincing customers she is, in fact, Eretz’s Jewish owner and not a back-room worker, Datuin says her highest hurdle was getting a solid return on investment – a familiar challenge for many new business owners.

With less that $20 to her name, Datuin borrowed seed money from friends and family to buy the store. Since then he has worked 16-hour days to keep the deli’s net income from hitting the flat line.

But with grocery stores famous for yielding low profit margins, keeping longer hours isn’t always the trick to more sales. Datuin realized increasing her volume of products would offer a better turnaround. After all, just like her restaurant-owning mother taught her, “the more you sell, the more you earn.”

Those wise words bore fruit thanks to a $5,000 loan from ACCION New York, a non-profit microlender. A bank would not have helped her, she says, because of her tiny credit history.

“The biggest challenge our clients face when applying for credit from traditional sources is their credit report,” says ACCION New York’s Mia Feldman. “We look past the credit report and help people learn how to build their credit.”

And thanks to her timely repayment of the microloan, Datuin recently qualified for an even bigger line of credit through Citibank. With it, she plans to venture across Manhattan. “I hope to open a second store on the East Side,” she said, “God willing.”