Puro Chile Store In Chinatown Plus Chilean Wine In New York

Soho and Chinatown: Meet Chile.

Across from the old Police Headquarters building, Puro Chile has opened a sleek, glass-enclosed store selling only products native to its country's shores.

This might sound strange unless you've been to Chile, in which case you're probably already on your way over for a jar of caricas, the small, papayalike fruit unique to the country, with its addictive crunchy-tender texture and indescribably hedonistic, exotic fruit flavor. (They must be cooked, so buying them jarred is not cheating.)

Or maybe it's lúcuma you're after: Though it's not the same as eating lúcuma ice cream in Santiago, Puro Chile's puree of the elusive superfruit is a great sundae topping.

The store also carries a variety of avocado and olive oils, vinegars, spices, organic quinoa and more.

But we're most excited about the upcoming adjacent wine shop. Here you'll find 200-plus labels, from $10 bargains to the immensely elegant but hard-to-find bottles that come from Chile's cooler corners. Seek out vibrant, nervy whites and smoky Syrah from the Casablanca and Limarí valleys. Or look to the Alto Maipo for the country's best Cabernet Sauvignons (click here for a full list of producers).

And if all of this shopping leaves you with wanderlust, there are kiosks for South American airline LAN if you want to head straight to the source.

Puro Chile, 221 Centre St. (at Grand St.); 212-217-9362 or pure-chile.com