New Latino grocery store in Crestview offers Mexican candy, empanadas, churros and more

CRESTVIEW — The fast-growing Hub City now has a Latino grocery store.

Josy’s Tienda Latina, featuring produce, meats, cheeses, salsas, spices, soft drinks, desserts and many other foods and products from Mexico and Central and South American countries opened April 16 at 314 S. Ferdon Blvd. 

The market stands in a business plaza between Good Things Donuts and Four Paws Pet Salon, across East Griffith Avenue from Lifepoint Church. The space formerly housed the All Dressed Up women’s clothing shop.

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Josy Duarte, the market store’s owner, said she and her family moved to Crestview from Pensacola 10 months ago to be closer to their house-painting business that has served Crestview for the past 2 1/2 years.

“My mom used to have a market store in Guatemala,” Josy said of her mother, Silvia Ramirez, who along with Josy’s husband, Dennis Duarte, works at Josy’s Tienda Latina.

Before opening the store, Josy said she and her family had to drive to Fort Walton Beach or Pensacola to find many of the items now offered at her new business.

“We felt we needed this store in Crestview,” she said. “Business has been going really good.”

Since its opening, some of the store’s popular items have included Mexican candy, empanadas and other frozen foods, its line of more than 30 spices, and produce.

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The produce includes yucca, malanga, plantains, chayote — which is similar to squash, but harder — peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, apples, bananas, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and nopal/prickly pear cactus.

Josy’s Tienda Latina also offers beans, Taki flavored tortilla chips and other chips, coffee, tea, corn husk tamale wrappers, salami from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican, Colombian, Honduran and Mexican chorizo, or sausage.

It also has a Guatemalan dairy spread and a Mexican-style cream, Salvadoran pickled cabbage, yellow cherries that many Hondurans enjoy, and churros, flan, tres leches, gelatinas, cookies and other desserts.

Breads are delivered daily from a business in Panama City. Beverages sale include Coca-Cola made with cane sugar as opposed to corn syrup, as well as Colombiana soda, sangria, fruit drinks and coconut milk.

“We want to have something for everyone,” Josy said.

Her store also carries tortilla makers, piggy banks, decorative items, coffee mugs, beer steins, shot glasses, wallets, purses, jewelry, shirts, backpacks, party supplies, medicines and personal hygiene items. It also provides money transfers.

Josy’s Tienda Latina is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The store is closed on Monday.

To learn more, visit the store’s Facebook page or call 850-331-3603.