Gourmet Boutique

Next to the covered walkway on the Westin Hotel lobby side of Copley Place is an enticing new space -- all 300 square feet of it -- with a copper-roofed overhang and a tempting sign in chocolate-brown and gold that reads "Gourmet Boutique."

Inside, caviar of all grades, from flying fish roe ($12.99 for 3.5 oz.) to beluga 000 ($199.99 for 2 oz.), is displayed in a well-stocked glass case. This delicacy inspired owner Anya Zelfond to open the business this winter. "I'm Russian, and we really do like caviar," says Zelfond, who immigrated to the US with her family 13 years ago, when she was 11. "I had a vision of a small caviar house like they have in Europe. I wanted a little European gourmet boutique in the center of Boston."

Caviar is the tip of the gourmet iceberg here. Zelfond stocks other hard-to-find items such as foie gras (including one of her favorites, Bizac, a mousse of goose liver with truffles that goes for $59.99 for 11.2 oz.) and truffles, both black and white, that sell for $10.99-$67.99 for three-quarters of an ounce. There are also colorful pastas, a variety of high-end teas (including the objets d'art pyramid tea bags from Tea Forte), and chocolates, from individual foil-wrapped Italian funghetti to tins of Maxim's truffles from France.

"I love working with people," Zelfond says of her burgeoning business. "On any day there must be at least four or five fascinating people that I get to interact with."

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