Editorial: Save Our Supermarkets - NY Daily News

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If you are content with your local supermarket, count yourself lucky. Pretty soon, you may have to count yourself lucky to have a local supermarket at all - content or not.

The simple idea of gathering all the food groups under one retail roof has ruled the grocery business in the five boroughs for decades. For the most part, supermarkets aced out the older mom-and-pop food shops by offering convenience and lower prices.

Now, supermarkets seem to be following mom and pop into history, mainly because of high rent and real estate costs. A City Planning Commission study has found that few neighborhoods have enough supermarkets to meet local needs.

What exactly will replace our vanishing supermarkets is not clear. Online grocers show some promise, but have mostly restricted themselves to the high-rent districts.

The Planning Commission study found that city residents spend $1 billion a year in suburban grocery stores, which are big and user-friendly.

With that kind of money in play, someone should be able to figure out a new urban business model for groceries. The city, which gives tax breaks to enterprises it deems important, should help. Good, inexpensive, nutritious food, such as supermarkets sell, is important to our neighborhoods. Between the city and the business community, a way to save our supermarkets, or replace them, can and should be found.

Pizza Tour Leads Cheese-and-Sauce Faithful to City's Cream of the Crust by Jotham Sederstrom - NY Daily News

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Scott Wiener of Scott's Pizza Tour with pies from Patricia's Pizzeria in Morris Park, Bronx

No bus tour ever tasted this good.

New York City — already home to a "Sex and the City" tour, a TV and movie trek and a Harlem gospel expedition — has a new attraction sure to please tourist taste buds.

Each Sunday, Scott's Pizza Tour will sample the slices at a half-dozen of the city's famed pie palaces like John's in Greenwich Village and Totonno's in Coney Island.

"This is like a dream, this pizza tour. It's great," said Chris Brady, 28, a Massachusetts customer service rep who downed 10 slices at five pizzerias yesterday during the tour's maiden voyage.

"I just wish I didn't have breakfast. I could've had more."

The trek is the brainchild of Scott Wiener, a New Jersey resident who quit his job as events coordinator for the City of Hoboken to launch the tour.

Pizza lovers with $55 to spare can tool around in a school bus on the first citywide pizza tour, which will hit premier pizzerias on a rotating basis.

Wiener is hoping to feature up-and-coming joints — like Luzzo's in the East Village, yesterday's second stop — as well as established favorites.

"They may not have the track record of Lombardi's or John's, but their pizza is still on the same level," said Wiener, 26, who said his personal favorite among the 130 pizzerias he's visited citywide — Brooklyn's Grimaldi's — will be on an upcoming junket.

Don't look for a Jersey stop anytime soon.

"A lot of pizzerias in Hoboken don't try very hard because they don't need to," Wiener said about pies in Frank Sinatra's hometown. "The market doesn't demand it. The standard is low."

At Patricia's in the Bronx, where workers dished out free extra helpings of the Neapolitan-style Margherita pie, Jon Anzalone said the wood oven-cooked pie ranked high on his short list of authentic pizzerias.

"I would go back to every one of these places, but they really spoiled us here," said Anzalone, 25, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

At Lombardi's, billed as the country's first-ever pizzeria, fans enjoyed the famed coal-oven pies without waiting on the Spring St. pizzeria's infamously long lines.

"Take a look, take a picture if you want, this is Lombardi's famous coal-oven pizza" said Wiener, who giddily showed off one of the city's few remaining coal ovens as chefs stuffed pie after pie into the 859-degree stove.

Not everyone on the tour could eat like a pro.

"I ate till I quit," said John Moyer, 53, of Pennsylvania, who inhaled 41/2 slices before calling it quits at Louie & Ernie's in the Bronx.

"Too. Much. Pizza."

Register online at www.scottspizzatours.com for the trek, which will leave from Lombardi's on Sundays starting May 11.

Pastosa For Quality Pasta And More by Dan Tress - Queens Chronicle

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Common or hard to find, Pastosa Ravioli can fill your needs. The Italian specialty store, located at 132-10 Cross Bay Blvd. in Ozone Park, has all the Italian imports one would expect and more.

“People come to us all the time with special orders and usually we are able to find it for them,” said owner Sal Cracchiolo.

Part of a Brooklyn-based chain, Pastosa offers a wide variety of imported and domestic cheeses, meats and pastas. Also among the store’s specialties is its homemade mozzarella, which is made fresh daily as well as sauces and prepared foods such as lasagna, meatballs and salads.

Of course, the specialty is the more than 30 fillings for its ravioli, plus its tortellini, gnocchi and other fresh pasta made daily in Brooklyn.

Pastosa has a full catering menu at very reasonable prices, but if you’re just looking for a simple sandwich, the price is right for that too.

Cracchiolo said an average sandwich costs about $5 and they offer daily lunch specials such as chicken parmesan sandwiches and sausage and pepper sandwiches. He also carries a full line of Boars Head cold cuts.

According to Cracchiolo, who now co-owns the store with his sister, Elena, the quality and variety of Pastosa, which has been in existence for over 30 years, sets it apart from other, similar stores. It’s a family-style operation with the Cracchiolo siblings customers of the store since they were children. They remember going there with their parents every Sunday after church.

In addition, their employees, Rosa Maria and Mike, who are also brother and sister, have worked at Pastosa for more than 20 years and know most of the customers by name.

“We have a lot of things you won’t find in the supermarket and everything is fresh,” Cracchiolo said.

The store hours are 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. Shipping is available at www.pastosa.com.

NY Daily News - Ozone Park Butcher Helps Provide Muslims with Their Holiday Feasts by Peter Kadushin

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New York's holiest and tastiest holiday delicacies may be in Queens, in a converted auto-body shop.

Madani Halal in Ozone Park has garnered a healthy following from epicureans of all faiths.

"Muslim holidays and Thanksgiving is our busiest time of year," said the shop's owner, Imran Uddin, a former advertising sales agent who took over the family business when his father, Riaz, retired in 2004.

"People still come in for the traditional turkey, but we serve tons of customers that bring recipes from their native country with lamb or goat or geese," Uddin said.

The purveyor's roster includes squab, Muscovy duck, pheasant, partridge, goat and other hard-to-find fare. The specialty shop follows strict dietary guidelines so that all meat is ritually slaughtered according to Islamic law.

The word "halal," according to the Koran, means permissible. Koranic laws require Muslims to prepare and eat only halal meat, which must be slaughtered by a practicing Muslim.

The butcher must utter a verse from the Koran including the name of Allah for every animal; a finely edged knife must be used with one cut to the neck; the animal's blood must be drained and no animal may see the death of another animal.

"Halal isn't just how you slaughter an animal," Uddin said. "It is about feeding and keeping them healthy and eating fresh and clean foods. We serve every religion and ethnic group you can imagine because they want fresh meat."

Madani Halal, located on 94th Ave., has been serving up halal cuts of meat for more than 10 years. Uddin has built up a local fan base of transplants from across the world.

"Eating halal is sacred and required of me as a practicing Muslim," said cabinet maker Mohamed Salim, 45, an immigrant from India. "But this is a place for anyone that wants the freshest meat. Nothing tastes better than this."

Dishes such as curried goat and lamb chops are part of Salim's holiday feasts.

"It is not a holiday about just turkey anymore," Salim said.

Madani Halal's goats range in size from 70 to 90 pounds and sell for upwards of $2.75 per pound. Customers choose a goat, and the shop slaughters it, cleans it and butchers it. The store sold about 600 turkeys for Thanksgiving for about $1.85 per pound.

"It is definitely more expensive than a grocery store, but it is always worth it," said Beesnudat Ragoobir, 41, of Ozone Park.

Uddin doesn't get to relax and eat during the holidays himself, but he takes solace in knowing his customers do.

"I don't always get to see it, but I feel like I'm adding a small, special part to the holiday for my customers," he said.

[where: Madani Halal Lamb, Goat & Poultry 100-15 94th Avenue, Ozone Park, NY 11417]