Here are a few of the top shops for beautiful produce, butchers and fresh seafood, along with specialty items and fine cheese.
Dean and Deluca and Eli’s also offer cookbooks and cookware. Dean and Deluca has a standup coffee and snack bar; Eli’s Manhattan has a casual self-help café open from morning to late afternoon.
Zabar’s concentrates on baked goods, packaged products, smoked fish, delicatessen, coffee, cheese and prepared foods; the cookware shop upstairs has a deep inventory and the best prices possible.
Fairway was the little store that grew and grew, gobbling up the real estate adjacent to its original Broadway store and then branching into huge outposts in Brooklyn and Harlem, big enough for walk-in meat lockers; parkers are available.
Dean and Deluca
560 Broadway
212 226 6800
Eli’s Manhattan
1411 3rd Ave
The Vinegar Factory
431 East 91st St
Fairway
2127 Broadway
212 595 1888
2328 12th Ave
212 234 3883
480-500 Van Brunt St (Brooklyn)
718 694 6868
Zabar’s
Broadway at 80th St
212 496 1234
CHEESE
Each of these shops has their devotees, but it is next to silly to say that one is better than the other. Each has friendly, knowledgeable staff and most have special events.
Artisanal
Restaurant Picholine (35 West 64th Street), renowned for its cheese cart, spawned Artisanal, which also is a casual bistro focused on cheese dishes. The retail shop and very good bakery run along the back wall of the dining area.
2 Park Ave
212 725 8585
500 West 37th St
Murray’s Cheese Shop
The oldest in town, fun and enlightening to visit.
254 Bleeker St
212 243 3289
Grand Central Terminal
212 922 1540
Ideal Cheese Shop
942 First Ave
212 688 7579
Fairway
Gorgeous cheese. Wonderful, carefully chosen selection and good prices. (Details above)
SPICES, NUTS & SNACKS
Kalustyan’s
Opened more than 60 years ago as an Indian spice emporium, Kalustyan’s
is now global, with products from all continents.
Here are 30 varieties
of whole chillies, 50 sorts of beans, more types of rice than you can
have imagined, and an endless assortment of spices, dried fruits,
syrups, all fresh and well-priced.
If trying to choose among the
100-odd teas overwhelms, you can restore your senses with lunch
upstairs.
123 Lexington Ave
212 685 3451
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