GALLERY: Exclusive First Photos of New Super Irvine International Market, Opening Oct. 31

Super Irvine International Market returns to the city of Irvine this month at Parkview Center on University Drive.  

The very first Super Irvine opened in 1996 by founder Ali Ariarad, who later in 2003 opened a second location in Mission Viejo. His daughters Mahta and Ana Ariarad joined the family business in 2019, after making their own mark in Orange County with the opening of Irvine Grill and Aria Kitchen.  

Three years ago, the original 12,000-square-foot location closed because the landlord decided not to renew the lease. Mahta and Ana Ariarad have since tried to bring the market back to Irvine.  

The Ariarad sisters found the vacant 30,000-square-foot space in early 2024 and secured the lease with the Irvine Company a few months later. It was previously a Zion Market.  

Compared to the former Super Irvine, Ana and Mahta Ariarad said they made sure to expand the store’s grocery offerings in order to grow its core customer base. 

On top of filling the aisles with different international and specialty groceries, Super Irvine will include a full-service deli, a butcher shop with halal and kosher options, and a fresh juice and coffee bar.  

“Food has always brought people closer,” President Mahta Ariarad said in a statement. “Irvine is truly a melting pot of cultures, and Super Irvine is a place where those cultures grow stronger together under one roof.”   

The new location will offer fresh-baked goods and catering with Bella’s Bakery, named after Ana Ariarad’s daughter. The sisters also revamped the market’s sit-down Mediterranean restaurant and renamed it Bita.   

Many of the citrus products such as avocados and figs come straight from the family’s farm in Fallbrook. With the new store opening, they added a greenhouse to the 30-acre property to start growing vegetables and herbs. The sisters said they acquired a few hundred chickens as well.    

“It’s fun,” Mahta Ariarad said during a tour of the market when it was still under construction. Though she acknowledged the difficulty of juggling the opening and their two restaurants, she added that they wouldn’t have anyone else doing it.