This Chelsea business, across the avenue from the Empire Diner, was reportedly active in 1982, but I don't know when it first opened, or when Deli Levi served its last sandwich.
Sandwiches, tea, coffee, beer, soda, [Deli] Levi
Surviving signage, The Practice Room, 205 Tenth Ave. (22nd-23rd Sts.), Manhattan
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Sign of the times at Mazzella's Market
694 Ninth Ave. (47th-48th Sts.), Manhattan
212-586-1448
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In blustery Riverside Park, my Italian combo wouldn't sit still for the customary pose, cutaway view leaning atop crust view. On reflection, I now see that hunger (hence haste) also led me to grab it upside-down. Does this affect the sandwich-eating experience?
Giacomo Fine Foods
269 W 72nd St. (Broadway-West End Ave.), Manhattan
347-330-7694
www.Facebook.com/GiacomoFineFoods
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We have 95% grain alcohol, a sign seemingly directed toward the production of homemade sanitizer. The brand name, unfortunately, is an ill fit.
Broadway Cellar
2746 Broadway (105th-106th Sts.), Manhattan
212-932-7772
www.BroadwayCellar.com
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Until the early 20th century, grocery stores weren't self-service. Customers would submit shopping lists to a clerk, who would gather the goods. When Buckley's first opened its doors — the typefaces suggest the 1920s, or perhaps the early 1930s — "self service" must still have been novel enough to be called out by name.
What might a "hands free" market look like today?
Buckley's Self-Service Market
251 Nassau Ave. (Monitor St.-Kingsland Ave.), Greenpoint, Brooklyn
718-383-0838
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(This venue is closed.) The price is right.
That's not merely a suggestion, that's the actual retail price, and it's hard to go very wrong unless you buy so much that you dip into the folding money. Ferrara Pan brand Hot Tamales, Boston Baked Beans, and Red Hots set me back just 25 cents each, though over visits two years apart, the boxes shrank from 1.3 oz. to just under an ounce.
Then again, on a more recent visit, a box of Dots and a coconut Long Boy required the outlay of just 25 cents total; you might scrape together that much by jiggling coin returns (which were much easier to jiggle in 2010, the date of that more recent visit). For the extremely thrift-minded, the shop sells Starburst loosies, too.
Sweet Banana itself is less than polished, even a little dingy, but I've always received a friendly send-off.
Sweet Banana Candy Store
112 Ninth Ave. (17th-18th Sts.), Manhattan
212-255-0673
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Yes, we have bananas, both ripe and very, very ripe. For a buck I scooped up the plate — more of a bowl, really — at front and center.
Also shown, from just up the avenue, surviving if very, very faded signage: "All cars transfer to Bloomingdale's" and "Chas. H. Fletcher's [Castoria]."
Manuel's Fruits and Vegetables
2060 Second Ave. (105th-106th Sts.), Manhattan
212-828-3334
www.Facebook.com/ManuelsFruitsAndVegetables
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Indian-American reminiscence of a visit to Mexico: chikoo ice cream, prepared from a fruit also known as chicozapote, which I've savored in Roma Sur. (And, after a fashion, also "by the scoop.") The flavor of the fruit mingles "brown sugar and pear," Margret Hefner notes in Frutas y Verduras, with some of a ripe pear's granularity; the ice cream captures it well.
Chikoo: Kwality Ice Cream
25803 Hillside Ave. (258th-259th Sts.), Floral Park, Queens
718-470-2225
Also at 1734 Oak Tree Rd. (Meridian-Sugar Rds., inside the Oak Village shopping plaza), Edison, New Jersey
732-906-1941
www.KwalityFoods.com
Chicozapote: Fruteria Monsalvo
Mercado de Medellín, stall 151
Calle Campeche 101 (Medellín-Monterrey), Roma Sur, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City
+52 55 7030-8206
(From a March 2017 visit)
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In southern Brazil, this cinnamon-dusted dessert is best-known as curau; in the northern part of the country, more often it's called canjica. The default name in western Queens, at least among non-Portuguese speakers: corn pudding.
Rio Supermarket
3215 36th Ave. (32nd-33rd Sts.), Astoria, Queens
718-706-7272
www.RioSupermarket.com
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Pepián de pollo, chicken stew flavored with roasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, portioned in two by the house and accompanied by rice, beans, chayote (I believe), and fluffy hand-fashioned Guatemalan tortillas. Very tender meat; nice chile tingle to the sauce.
El Buen Chapin Deli
3915 Fifth Ave. (39th-40th Sts.), Sunset Park, Brooklyn
718-435-0170
www.Facebook.com/El-Buen-Chapin-Deli-Grocery-585344888599650
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Thank you!
