Is this thing on? Tanya here, borrowing the mic from Nikita and Becky to talk not about restaurants, but about grocery stores. Stick with me, OK?
A friend once told me he aims to spend as little time at the grocery store as possible. Couldn’t be me! I want to leisurely browse the aisles, I want to double back to the seafood counter for a fifth time. Hell, I want to eat my lunch there.
As a reluctant member of the Midtown corporatti, I often scrounge the Bermuda Triangle of Sweetgreen, Dig and Pret A Manger for a lunch that will never truly satisfy, and occasionally crash land into the Whole Foods hot bar. But even there, I stumble out disappointed and $17 poorer.
There is a better way. This city is teeming with independent grocery stores that have nailed the promise of the hot bar, perfected the prepared foods at their deli counters, honed their takeaway offerings to rival those of a full-service dining room. Here’s a sampling (on a toothpick).
Mustardy meats and miso cod for Manhattanites
When the midafternoon craving for $2.99 shrimp tempura onigiri strikes — often, if you’re like me — the 117-year-old Katagiri Japanese Grocery awaits. With a location in Midtown and another in Lenox Hill, just east of Central Park, the market is the perfect pit stop between meetings or museums. But I pledged meals, not snacks: You’ll also find an impressive assortment of ready-made miso cod plates, pork dumplings, chirashi, karaage and, at the 59th Street store, carryout rice bowls topped with mushroom curry or yuzu salmon prepared by Brooklyn Ramen; find a more extensive onigiri counter at the Lexington Avenue location.
Or head north to Schaller & Weber, the German market and butcher that’s been doling out brats to Upper East Siders for nearly 90 years. Grab a chicken soup from the fridge to go, or yap it up with perhaps the friendliest butcher in the city while you size up the various potato, cabbage and cucumber salads, schnitzel, goulash and spicy fried chicken behind the glass. And while it might not exactly count as “prepared food,” the made-to-order Saigon Special — a brat topped with carrot and radish slaw, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeño and Sriracha aioli on a pretzel bun — available at the Schaller’s Stube window just next door, is worth the three-minute wait and $13.
A baba ghanouj bounty in Brooklyn
For your Prospect Park picnic spread, the three-month-old Dukan Syko Marketplace in Windsor Terrace is the spot. At this Syrian and Korean bazaar, you can cobble together an eclectic selection of baba ghanouj, hummus, banchan and kimbap. Find packed-up cheese-topped flatbreads in the back, or order fresh fatayer, little pies, from the bakery kiosk. A word to those seeking the freshest pita: The oven is off on Mondays, when the nearby restaurant, Syko, is closed.
You probably don’t need me to tell you about the flagship Sahadi’s location on Atlantic Avenue, but maybe you need me to tell you about Damascus Bread & Pastry Shop, a small shop three doors down? Pick up some prepared falafel, lovely man’oushe and an especially delicious tomato-y soup with chicken, kidney beans and grains while you stock up on olives, dates and spices.
Feasts for a king in Queens
“3 Aunties Thai Market is more than just a grocery store,” reads the website for the shop with two locations in Woodside. I concur. The $7.99 grilled pork with stick rice, which sits alongside salads, desserts and pork stir-fries in a fridge by the register in the cramped original storefront (where you’ll also find paper bags with more skewered meats and tubs of pork cracklings with chile and herbs), is enough to get me on the No. 7 train in the middle of the day.
“NO EGGPLANT!” yelled the older gentleman in line at the deli counter at Rosario’s in Astoria to his female accomplice by the door. That is precisely when I knew I’d have to come back to this quaint Italian market exclusively for the $10 eggplant Parmigiano sandwich. I happily settled for a pepperoni slice — there’s a pizza oven back there! You’ll have to pay for your dried pastas and biscotti at the deli counter anyway, so even if you weren’t planning on a grocery store lunch, you might as well pick up a hunk of lasagna, a meat-stuffed rice ball or some pickly octopus salad while you’re at it.
While most of these offerings are behind counters or already packed for your convenience, the hot bar dream lives on at Rio Supermarket, also in Astoria. Set to the side of the Brazilian store’s aisles of frozen yuca, bolo de cenoura and, yes, bikinis, is a small dining room with a buffet filled with French fry-topped beef stroganoff, maduros, fresh cut fruit, grilled chicken and some of the best chicharrones, known as torresmos brancos in Brazil, I’ve ever had.
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