store tour
The shops of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn have been offering authentic Italian foods in traditional settings for decades.

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Once home to the likes of astronomer Carl Sagan and Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei, Brooklyn, New York’s Bensonhurst neighborhood has produced more than celebrities. Its generations-owned pasticcerias, salumerias, homemade bread and mozzarella stores and open-air produce markets have created some of the most authentic Italian specialty foods that New York has to offer.

Though today’s Bensonhurst is a mix of cultures ranging from Russian to Chinese, the Italian community has maintained its presence since the 1900s. Stores offering traditional tastes of Italy line the district’s main thoroughfare, 18th Avenue between 67th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway, and surrounding backstreets. Here is a look at some of the merchants that have remained a foothold in the community and continue to attract customers from all around.

Self-billed as the “King of the Sausage”, Bari Pork Store prides itself in precisely what its name proclaims—pork products. It’s made clear, too, by endearing displays of animated pig figurines.

Smiling pigs aside, it’s the sausages that have kept customers returning for 30 years. Made fresh at the store, the pork sausages come in flavors such as Fennel, Cheese and Parsley and Broccoli Rabe. The salumeria—which offers a catering service that includes classic Italian dishes such as Chicken Francese and Scungilli Marinara—is fully stocked with imported goods from Italy, including cheeses and best-seller prosciutto, fresh from the city of Parma. Bari Pork Store, 6319 18th Ave.; 718.837.9773.


Cammareri Bros. Bakery: World-Famous Breads
Established in 1921 and featured in the 1987 movie Moonstruck, Cammareri Bros. is a household name among many Italians. Although the bakery doesn’t directly sell to walk-ins, it caters to many foodservice clients in New York. Clients include high-end restaurants such as Manhattan’s Thalassa and Il Cortile Ristorante and bagel shops such as Bay Ridge, Brooklyn’s Bagel Boy and Bake Ridge Bagels as well as Lioni Italian Heroes (see below), which sells Cammareri breads at retail.

The renowned bakery was founded by Sicilian native Nicholas Cammareri and today is run by his grandsons Nicholas and Paul Cammareri, third-generation owners. Cammareri Bros. handmakes all of the products—from ciabatta heroes to Calamata pitted olive bread to its signature, best-selling Casatiello Napoletano (prosciutto and cheese bread)—using 100 percent semolina flour and bakes them on-site in brick ovens. Ingredients, such as provolone and Genoa salami, are imported from Italy.

The overhead costs end up being high, but it’s worth it, says Manager John Bissada, if it means producing the perfect bread: crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and ready to eat on its own. It’s the kind of bread that makes customers want to sing buonissimo when they take a bite. Cammareri Bros. Bakery, 1660 Bath Ave.; 718.331.0147.

Although it is only 15 years old, this deli pays homage to the Rat Pack era with memorabilia hung on the walls, sandwiches named after famous Italians such as the Dean Martin “We’ll Drink to This One”, and anecdotes in the signage. Frank Sinatra, for instance, “loved salami and fresh mozzarella” says a description of the singer’s sandwich. The heroes come in a variety of sizes up to 6 feet and there’s a staggering menu of 150-plus items.

A retail offshoot of cheese manufacturer Lioni Latticini, Inc., the deli also sells its parent company’s acclaimed mozzarella (unsalted, salted and smoked). The running special is $13 for 3 pounds although customers can buy it in smaller quantities or include it in a hero. The preservative-free mozzarella is made from its own curds at farms in upstate New York, and can be kept frozen for up to two weeks. Lioni Italian Heroes, 7803 15th Ave.; 718.232.1411; 
lioniheroes.com.
Mona Lisa Pastry Shoppe and Café: Wedding Cakes, Gelato and Other Treats
Opened in 1919 as a bakery, the Mona Lisa Pastry Shoppe and Café has grown into a pastry shop offering a mouthwatering selection of cookies, pastries, cakes, sorbets and gelatos that are made daily. This third-generation-run company also sells bread that is made from its original recipe and baked in a 90-year-old coal-fired brick oven.
Founded in 1972, Queen Ann carries a full line of pastas, including black ink linguine, ricotta cavatelli, spinach gnocchi, chicken tortellini and manicotti, which are all made fresh daily in the shop.

Queen Ann’s most popular item is its ravioli, which comes with 30 filling options, including pesto and cheese, lobster and asparagus with smoked mozzarella and ricotta ravioli, a new bestseller. The store also offers full catering and stocks homemade sauces, its own mozzarella and ready-to-go meals, as well as a multitude of imported Italian-branded goods.

Besides its local clientele, Queen Ann sells about 20,000 boxes of pasta a week at retail/wholesale and through private labeling. Queen Ann Ravioli & Macaroni Co. Inc., 7205 18th Ave.; 718.256.1061.

Villabate Alba Pasticceria & Bakery: Traditional Italian Treats from Sicily
Named after the Sicilian town in which the founder’s family lived, Villabate Alba continues to honor its Italian roots by using ingredients and flavorings imported from Sicily. The almond cookies, orange-scented ricotta cheesecake and fruit-shaped pastries are created in a traditional fashion by six staffers who were all trained on-site in the art of baking, decorating and styling.
The 29-year-old family-run business also offers bread, gelato and espresso, but it’s the cakes and pastries that have customers lining up, usually well outside the shop. Like a secret doorway to Italy, Villabate is one of the few authentic pasticcerias left in New York that rings true to its past.Villabate Alba Pasticceria & Bakery, 7001 18th Ave.; 718.331.8430/718.232.2122; villabate.net. |SFM|

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