For immigrants, grocery stores like Saraga are not so much shopping destinations as they are spaces to help new residents build community. Around 11 percent of the Columbus population is foreign-born, and the city has 20,000 Bhutanese-Nepali refugees, the largest population of its kind in the U.S. According to the Refugee Processing Center, Ohio resettled 2,085 refugees in 2017, the third most welcoming state behind Texas and California. Saraga fills a need by offering everything from a cellphone shop to a place to get your eyebrows threaded, all in languages that folks who have just arrived can understand. Confused why no one understands you at other stores when you ask for a monkey cap? At Saraga, beanies are still sold as “monkey caps,” as the hat is referred to in many parts of South Asia. And there is no shortage of cheeky humor; the granulated white sugar, for example, is sold in an aisle labeled “American food.”

The jhol momo dumplings. Photo by Tom Hoying

After all, it can be a jarring thing: to pick up and start anew in a foreign country. Places like Saraga help soften the transition for new immigrants in Ohio, just as Chinese stores in Sacramento helped my parents ease their entry into California in the 1970s. Eventually there will be newer and more niche international grocery stores in Columbus, but Saraga’s appeal, at least for me, is that it feels like a stable, familiar home, belonging to everyone and no one at once.

Each time I visit I end up spending much more time there than I anticipated—Saraga is designed this way, or so it seems. The checkout counter sits far back from the exit, with plenty of space near the entrance for customers to hang around, whether it be to purchase a Mexican pastry and to watch soccer or to post a message in any language on the massive bulletin board that advertises everything from Vietnamese church services to home-delivered Somali food. The space is so diverse and expansive that many immigrant communities think of Saraga as a place built by one of their own, for their very own. And while the former may not always be the case, the latter most definitely is.

Zahir Janmohamed is the senior news editor of Hyphen and the co-host of the Racist Sandwich podcast.