[custom_adv] Along Sa’di Avenue before its junction with Enqelab Avenue and on the corner of Hedayat St. there is a shop which is about 78 years old. Minion Chocolate and Confectionary Shop is now a memory of the bygone past. [custom_adv] The shop has been renamed to “Latif” Confectionary. Its original owners had fled Ukraine after the Communist revolution in that country and immigrated to Iran. [custom_adv] The Ukrainian family that used to bake bread and cookies back in their own country, continued that line of work in Tehran. Roben, a descendent from that Ukrainian family, is currently running the one-time Minion Chocolate and Confectionary Shop. [custom_adv] This family business was established in 1910 in Kharkov, Ukraine. It was founded by Hovsep Ter-Poghossian Sr. in a modest middle class neighborhood. [custom_adv] The business started as a bakery that sold white bread and baguettes as their main products. As the business rapidly grew, the bakery expanded by adding baked goods and sweets to its existing bread menu. [custom_adv] For the next 20 years Hovsep Sr. successfully operated the business. During the communist regime of Soviet Union, Hovsep Sr. was arrested and sent to Siberia as a prisoner. [custom_adv] He was arrested for being a notable and successful businessman who accumulated a great fortune by working hard. During Hovsep Sr.'s absence, his family migrated to Tehran, Iran in the search of freedom and a better life. [custom_adv] Hovsep Sr. was released after 4 years of torture and rejoined the family in Tehran with only a few pennies in his pocket. around 1935 he borrowed money from friends and opened his bakery in the center of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
