Reading Terminal's new leader faces challenges old and new

Anuj Gupta landed a new job last Friday as general manager of the Reading Terminal Market, and the gig offers equal helpings of his two loves: public service and food.

"It's hard to find a place in Philadelphia, let alone anywhere else, that offers you the quality and diversity of product, and affordability, that the terminal does," Gupta said during a walk-through this week. "It's this magnificent, historic place. People love it."

Gupta, who will start June 15, arrives at a critical juncture for the market, which dates to 1892.

The number of visitors has fallen by 5 percent since 2012. New competitors are encroaching, including a Whole Foods Market in the Fairmount section, and Mom's Organic Food - coming at 11th and Market Streets.

A lack of space is an ongoing concern. And the market needs to attract more online orders to raise market share among a diverse city population.

"As magnificent as the market is and has been to the city, it is facing challenges," Gupta said. He succeeds Paul Steinke, who quit to run unsuccessfully for City Council.

Gupta's job came as no surprise to those who know him and his family's legacy in Indian food. His parents developed Jyoti Foods, among the first ready-made Indian meals packaged for sale in the U.S. So when the job to head the market opened up, Gupta raised his hand immediately.

His resume is heavy with public service jobs after he graduated with dual law and public administration degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

He later served as Mayor Nutter's chief of staff and deputy commissioner of Licenses & Inspections, among other roles. He is about to leave his current job as executive director of Mount Airy USA, a nonprofit community development corporation that focuses on revitalization projects, including building affordable housing for families and rehab spaces for small businesses.

But food has always been an important part of his life. He has owned an Indian restaurant in Mount Airy, where he lives, called Jyoti Indian Bistro since 2013. It serves his mother's recipes. His parents are gourmet chefs.

"Oh, I wanted it bad," Gupta, 41, said of heading the market. "This was a perfect fit for me."

He has another connection to the market, one more personal, which he said underscores its significance as a Philly icon.

When his daughter Leela was 6 months old, the two would board a train from Mount Airy every Saturday morning and head to the market.

The father and daughter would grab a table and bond for hours as Gupta read children's books to her over breakfast. The ritual lasted three years.

"You can't find a place like this and the product here anywhere else," he said.

Of the challenges ahead, he said the market has been a victim of its own success. It's hemmed in. About 90 percent of its $4.5 million annual operating budget comes from 80 tenants. The rest is from grants, sponsorships, and fund-raisers. It gets no state or city subsidies.

Gupta says the market may need to temporarily expand when it is bursting at the seams. "Are there ways to have seating out on Filbert Street, for example, and let the market breathe?"

Another idea is to expand the market's online Instacart program so people can shop the market seven days a week even if they can't get there.

Chris Gowen, the market's assistant general manager, said that although the market was doing well this year, it has been hurt by the decline in conventions over the last two years, which explains the drop in customer counts (visitors coming through the market's doors), from 6.4 million in fiscal year 2012 to 6.1 million the last fiscal year, 2014.

Among the tenants Gupta introduced himself to last week were Adham Albarouki, 30, and his brother Anwar, 23, both of South Philly, who work the counter of the family-owned Kamal's Middle Eastern Specialties.

"He seems really interested in getting to know us, and he is very knowledgeable about the history of the market," Adham Albarouki said. "So far so good. I like him."

Scott Ash, a Delta pilot, had two meals - breakfast and an early dinner - during a layover from Atlanta to Paris on Wednesday. The market was a short walk from his Marriott room.

"It lives up to the hype," said Ash, 53, who enjoyed a shrimp dish from Beck's Cajun Cafe and a large fruit smoothie from Kamal's. "I've been to farmer's markets all over the country, and this is at the top."