Talal Alzefiri moved to Maine from Kuwait nine years ago. Today, he runs two successful businesses in Biddeford. Eloise Goldsmith photo
BIDDEFORD — Step into Talal Alzefiri’s Alhadidi Market in downtown Biddeford, and you’ll find goods that you won’t see at your local Shaws. The store has cookies from Issa’s Bakery, a Middle Eastern cookie wholesaler based in New Jersey, the spice za’atar, Turkish delight, tea, candy from around the world.
And all the products have one thing in common: they’re halal.
Halal means “lawful” in Arabic — the opposite of haram, or “prohibited.” Observing halal guidelines is a core part of the Muslim faith. Some foods are naturally halal, while others — like meat — have to be prepared in a certain way. And some meat, like pork, isn’t considered halal, no matter how it’s slaughtered.
“You get used to something while you grow and then it gets cut off from your life (when) you move to a new place,” said Alzefiri, who is Muslim and moved to Maine nearly a decade ago from Kuwait. When he first moved here, he said it was hard to find halal meat.
“I’m super happy that I can (provide) somebody (with) what makes them feel satisfied,” he said, speaking of his halal products.
Most of Alzefiri’s customers are Muslim and some drive from as far away as Bangor or Springfield, Massachusetts, to buy his goods. Many are there to buy meat – he sells goat, lamb, chicken and beef — or dairy products, which together are his biggest sellers, he said.
“Some of them take the whole lamb, which is almost 35 pounds or 30 pounds,” he said.
Alzefiri originally came to the United States on a soccer scholarship with the University of Southern Maine. These days, his family lives here too. He gave up soccer, but he never left Vacationland, and he’s now celebrating three years as a business man in Biddeford.
In February, Alzefiri inaugurated the Alhadidi Market’s new location on Alfred Street and his restaurant Layalina on Main Street is in its second year serving up well reviewed Middle Eastern food.
Alzefiri and Mayor Marty Grohman cut the ceremonial ribbon to inaugurate the Alhadidi Market’s new location on Alfred Street. Eloise Goldsmith photo
City officials including Biddeford Mayor Marty Grohman attended a ribbon cutting ceremony to honor the market’s new location, and praised the store front as an essential part of Biddeford’s business landscape.
Alzefiri’s success in Biddeford is only the latest chapter in the city’s long history as a home to Muslim Americans.
He’s not even the first Muslim grocer in the area. According to records kept by the MacArthur Public Library, a Muslim Albanian man named Mustafa Fouad (also spelled Fuat, according to records) moved to the United States in 1913 and opened a grocery store in Biddeford. He later settled in New York and changed his name to Henry Kasem.
There is also evidence that America’s first mosque was operated out of Biddeford’s Pepperrell Mills Counting House starting in 1915 and served the city’s Albanian Muslim population, many of whom worked for the Pepperrell Mills Company.
Some of Biddeford’s early Muslim community are buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. A cluster of graves are marked with headstones that face east towards Mecca, according to The Pluralism Project at Harvard University.
Today the Muslim community in Biddeford endures. Last year, the city held its second annual Biddeford Community Iftar at Southern Maine Health Care to celebrate the holiday Ramadan. Over 100 people attended to honor the last day of fasting. The event was organized by Biddeford resident Eisha Kahn and her partner Liam LaFountain, who is a member of the Biddeford City Council.
The duo is gearing up to hold the Community Iftar for a third time this coming Ramadan, according to LaFountain.
Eisha Khan chats with a table at the 2023 Biddeford community Iftar at Southern Maine Health Care. Khan and her partner, Biddeford city councilor Liam LaFountain, are organizing another Iftar this spring. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Alzefiri said anecdotally that he has seen the Muslim community in Biddeford grow in the last couple years.
“I have seen a lot of different backgrounds, actually. I’ve been seeing Middle East(ern), African … and even Ukrainian (Muslims),” said Alzefiri.
Around the state, too, Muslim business owners are marking their mark. In Unity, an Iraqi-American man named Hussam Al-Rawi and his partner have opened a halal meat processor, Five Pillars Butchery. The operation is one of the only direct sources of halal meat in Maine, according to a profile of the business by Maine Public.
Alzefiri, who mostly gets his meat products from Vermont and Massachusetts, said he hasn’t yet made contact with Five Pillars as a potential supplier.
At the ribbon cutting ceremony, Alzefiri tells the crowd the origin story of his market: his mother had trouble finding the spices and ingredients she needed for cooking.
“And I’m like, ‘You know what. I’ve got to do something,’” he recalled thinking. Simple as that.
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