Esposito & Sons Jersey Pork Store, a butcher shop in Carroll Gardens, has closed after 100 years in business. A sign posted at the Court Street shop shows April 10 as the last day for one of Brooklyn’s oldest butchers. It’s just the latest passing of a historic business in the New York neighborhood.
Esposito & Sons opened in Carroll Gardens a century ago, originally on Columbia Street, after the founder moved to New York by way of Naples, Italy in 1922. It later relocated to its current home at 357 Court Street, near President Street. At the time there was a thriving Italian American community that patronized the “old world” stores. Now, the demographic profile of the neighborhood has changed and there just is not enough support for the iconic products of Italian American cuisine.
In 2010, the New York Times reported that when the pork store first opened decades back, it sourced its meat from Jersey farms, “which had the best cuts,” calling it a “meat store grandma would love.” For a long time, the sandwich shop, which hand-butchered its meats, did not even have a list of options, though that has since changed at the cash-only venture. Over the years, they supplied products to restaurants, like Buttermilk Channel, as well as home cooks.
In 2019, George Esposito told Bkylner–a hyper-local news source that itself closed on September 10, 2021– that the business was in decline: “The future, unfortunately, is coming to an end.” He added that, “We are getting older. We’re here 100 years. Didn’t push our kids to take over the business, because the way the business is headed.”
This is not the only old-school Italian spot that has taken a hit as of late, and not only in Carroll Gardens, but in other parts of New York City as well. Earlier this month, longtime locals of the neighborhood mourned the loss of slice shop Sal’s, just down the street from G. Esposito & Sons.
Alleva Dairy, a 130-year-old Little Italy landmark cheese store known for its fresh ricotta and mozzarella, also closed in March after a long battle with its landlord over back rent.
Last September, Alleva Dairy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Pina Alleva, who immigrated from Benevento, Italy, founded the store in 1892 at the corner of Grand and Mulberry Streets. The Alleva family ran it until 2014, when Ms. King and her husband, John Ciarcia, a cousin of the last family owner, Robert Alleva, took over the business. Mr. Ciarcia, who died in 2015, was an actor on “The Sopranos” and appeared in the film “Goodfellas.” The actor Tony Danza, perhaps best known as the housekeeper dad on the television series “Who’s the Boss?” was a co-owner of the shop until 2017.
Next door to Alleva, Piemonte Ravioli, established in 1920, sells fresh pasta. Across Grand Street, Ferrara Bakery, also established in 1892, offers gelato, espresso and Italian desserts. Those are among the few that are left.
In its heyday, the neighborhood was an unbroken line of businesses catering to the old world immigrants, and later, to their children and grandchildren. But those days are gone; the younger generations migrated to the suburbs as they became more upwardly mobile.
All over New York city Italian American businesses are dwindling. The same trend has occurred in the Bronx’s Little Italy, Arthur Ave.
In Manhattan, as nearby NoLIta has spread its influence, trendy boutiques have popped up among the older shops, crowding out the old but humble stores.
The problem of staying in business in New York city is not due only to the changing profile of the neighborhoods and the waning demand of its products. The astronomical price of rent in NYC is a major contributing factor. “I have no idea how people can pay rent here,” John Esposito told Crain’s New York Business in 2012.
The answer is obvious, to pay higher rents you need more customers–and that is no longer a possibility.
