Decades ago, a sweet-toothed source tells me, this was home to an ice cream parlor called Lickman's.
It's possible (I don't recall, myself) that the current, Macedonian shop has retained the old layout. As you enter, to the left is a counter and register, adjoining a glass display case; beyond are a few sets of tables and chairs, and twin swinging doors that lead to the kitchen. Beside the doors, a pass-through is now largely blocked by shelves of beet slices, banana peppers, ajvar, and other trappings of Balkan menus. If you'd like to make a call, better bring your cell: The phone booth has been commandeered for grocery overflow.
Many places that serve bureks — such as Tony & Tina's, whose owners hail from Albania — prepare them in two shapes and assign them the same name. One is baked in a circular, deep pan and is eventually cut in quarters; the other confines its contents in a long thin roll, which is coiled before being baked. This latter, single-serving style I'd taken to calling a spiral burek, but Shop Express distinguishes it with the Macedonian name banicka (bah-Nitch-kah, $4). The outer layers of the phyllo-like dough, made in-house, become flaky and crispy in the oven while the inner folds — shown with spinach — retain a noodle-y chewiness.
A Chowhound post gives more details of the menu. A YouTube video, though underedited, does show (beginning at about the 4:45 mark) the prepwork before baking a cheese burek.
Shop Express
27 Belmont Ave. (Wessington Ave.-Orchard St.), Garfield, New Jersey
973-253-8887
Closed Sunday
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