This storefront used to read, “Indo Euro Foods” and for a dozen years, the woman who owned this shop had become a friend. Prior to Sonal Patel buying the place back in June of 2002 Caroline and I had been visiting it under its previous owner to buy British and Indian foods and more importantly rent Bollywood films. After seeing Devdas in L.A. back in the summer of 2002 Caroline and I stepped up our renting of movies from the shop, especially those starring Shah Rukh Khan, and it was during this time we first met Sonal.

This is Sonal Patel of Indo Euro Foods that a couple of years ago became Kwality Ice Cream. After 14 years of selling groceries and renting videos her business like so many others was being heavily impacted by streaming video and online sales of hard-to-find food items that had by then become easy to acquire online. It was time for a change, but after two years of trying a new business model, it is once again time to move on. The population of the Phoenix area is likely too bland and conformist to venture away from the safety of their pizza and wings to try exotic ice cream flavors from India, sad. Today was the last day for us to share one more falooda from our good friend Sonal.