A specialty grocer offering teas, spices and foods from across the globe is moving the market to Little Italy.

Culinary Architecture plans to pack up its store at 765 Washington Blvd. in Pigtown and move to a location twice its size in January 2026. The new shop will have a larger kitchen and bakery for more in-house production as the price to import international goods continues to climb, according to owner Sylva Lin. She said the store needs to be in an area with more foot traffic and local businesses to grow its imprint.

“Pigtown will always be where our roots are,” the company wrote on Instagram of the neighborhood where they have spent the last 10 years building a community. “This move is bittersweet, but it’s also full of possibility.”

The store carries a variety of foods from baked bread and craft beverages to cured meats and tinned fish — the cost of which is becoming more difficult to manage due to tariffs. She said she now pays more for fresh produce than her meats. Even Culinary Architecture’s catering business, which buoyed the shop through a pandemic downturn, has yet to book a holiday party for the first time.

“People are feeling it. ... There’s this yearning for something of the past to come back, but their wallets won’t let them,” Lin said.

She believes customers are still hungry for a specialty retail experience. When Culinary Architecture opened in 2015, affordable lease rates and a growing interest in diverse food seemed to make Pigtown the perfect spot. She’s made uniting community members around different cuisines a foundational block of Culinary Architecture and has tried to keep prices stable.

Lin described the store as a “bright spot” in Pigtown. “When someone’s having a bad day, they’re going to come in and talk to me,” she said. The company’s kitchen, too small to fit more than five people, became an incubator for local entrepreneurs looking to get their start, including Lin’s neighbor Kathy Nelson, who started MFG Toffee, now also in Little Italy.

Lin still lives in the neighborhood and is looking forward to ushering a new business into her space. But she says the area’s changed.

Federal workers, a large part of her customer base, are scaling back on spending, and a health care clinic with outpatient mental health services moved in down the street. The facility sparked frustration among more than 50 neighbors, who claimed at a June zoning appeal that the business wasn’t compatible with ongoing revitalization efforts, according to an opposition letter.

The president of the community organization Citizens of Pigtown, Casey O’Neill, who has lived in the area for 10 years, said the influx of “bad faith” treatment facilities has been a challenge for residents and business owners. The 772 Washington Blvd. center is one of several opened around Pigtown that Lin believes are a deterrent to her customers.

“People who make decisions don’t care if they drop rehabs at your front door,” she said. “Are [customers] going to pay $7 for a latte when they’re stepping over someone or human feces?”

The changes in her community and industry make Lin optimistic about the move to Little Italy. She said she already feels welcomed by the neighborhood’s surrounding family-owned businesses, who have persevered as their own community continues to change. At 236 S. High St., Culinary Architecture will hire additional staff, allowing the store to be open more days and offer indoor seating and more room to experiment with different parts of the business, including catering.

Little Italy Neighborhood Association President Lisa Regnante said the community’s excited about Culinary Architecture. The store fits the needs of the community and will surely benefit from the nearby wine bars, eateries and waterfront, she said.

Lin said she gradually searched for the right spot over the last two years, believing the business would do better in a larger space.

“They’re grasping change and are excited about it,” Lin said of the neighborhood.