I am a granddaughter of a proud Italian-American man with a strong native New Yorker-personality. I was raised with a quiet reverence for fresh bread—and a louder reverence for the people who made it. My grandfather grew up in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood. Now living in Long Island, he still makes the trip into the borough’s deepest corners before every holiday to pick up prosciutto bread from Mazzola Bakery. Even during my 12-year stint as a vegetarian, when that bread arrived—fresh, salty, crackling, rich with lard—I ate it anyway. That’s how deep this goes.
It’s not just me; business is constantly booming at these local hubs, where lines form out the door even on weekdays. Every week, shoppers across boroughs and state lines return to Italian delis all over New York City—especially, to Brooklyn for the real old-school gems: places like, Lioni’s Italian Heroes for fresh mozzarella and Carlo’s Grocery for homemade cooking in Bensonhurst; Defonte’s in Red Hook for fat Italian sandwiches; Carroll Gardens’ Mazzola Bakery for the lard bread, Caputo’s Fine Foods for freshest meats and cheeses, and Court Pastry for Italian sweets, Sfingis, cannoli, and zeppoles.
These delis are among the last active threads linking Brooklyn to its Italian immigrant heritage. By 1930, Italians were the largest immigrant group in the borough, especially in Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Bensonhurst, and Bay Ridge. Although these neighborhoods have since radically changed, many delis have managed to stick around. While chain stores and algorithm-driven restaurants scale by replicating, these spaces survive by keeping their passed-down traditions, and hence, are irreplaceable.
At Caputo’s Fine Foods, a selection of meats, sauces, soups, and more are kept fresh in the fridge.
Kaitlyn Rosati
“We’ve got a mix of new- and old-comers, but what matters is that whoever you are, when you walk in, you feel like you’ve been here before; it’s like a time machine,” says Vincent Defonte of the iconic establishment of Defonte’s. The sandwich shop was founded by his great-grandfather Nick—an immigrant from Mola di Bari, Italy. Vincent, who also works as a fireman, helps run the business now, from behind-the-counter service to pop-up events and its media accounts. According to Defonte, the deli originated as a third place for longshoremen who would sit, eat, and bond there while waiting for their boats in Red Hook. Walking into Defonte’s today, you’ll find this identity remains intact: the walls echo with banter from the city’s newcomers to firemen, union workers, and families whose roots in the neighborhood run generations deep.
“It’s rare to find a sandwich shop that brings in such a wide crowd,” says Defonte.“We don’t have to try for a familiar feeling—it’s quintessentially New York in a way that it’s so sure of itself. And fun in the way that you can sometimes tell [which] conversations are going to be had in front of you: ‘Who’s a Yankees fan; who’s for the Mets? You’re a Knicks fan, right?’”
Dining and Cooking