WHILE I haven’t been to East Flatbush, Mill Basin and Bergen Beach for several years, when I lived in Brooklyn I was a fairly frequent visitor as it was directly east by a few miles from Bay Ridge by bicycle. There is a modest business district along Avenue N east of Flatbush Avenue and the B41 bus runs along it on the way to its southern turnaround in Bergen Beach. It’s very citified west of Ralph Avenue, but things get decidedly surburban in aspect once you cross that undefended border. In fact there were large tracts of Bergen Beach that remained undeveloped and were empty grassy lots in the 1970s, and some persisted into the 1990s. Some of Bergen Beach was developed into a neighborhood called Georgetown, with very same-y tract housing.
You wouldn’t think the area would sponsor one of NYC’s classic sidewalk store signs but here we are on Avenue N just west of Ralph, with a classic plastic or linoleum blue and white sign for Landi’s Pork Store, which, as the sign says, was established in 1928. There’s even a classic animal cannibal “Sausage King” figure. However, Landi’s hasn’t always been in this location. According to the store’s website, which has a generous history page, the store was founded by John J. Landi of Red Hook, who was working for the Jersey Pork Store in 1928 at age 18, where he picked up numerous Italian food recipes. He ascended to manager at a new location on Navy Street and during the Depression managed to purchase the store, moving it to Myrtle Avenue in the 1940s. John Senior, joined by sons John and Ben, opened a new location here in 1959, maintaining the Myrtle Avenue location for a few years until 1964. In southern Brooklyn there are still a number of “pork stores,” a combination of Italian-themed grocery and butcher. On offer are prepared Italian specialties such as chicken parm, chicken bruschetta, roast pork, sausage & peppers, seafood/shellfish, and the fresh dairy products, “latticini” in Italian. Landi’s can be thought of as a full-service grocery and sandwich shop selling home made Italian specialties. Often, such stores maintain the same signage for decades.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
1/5/26
2 comments
Karl Ehmer, where art thou?
It’s not *too* old-school because from the website it doesn’t appear to have soffritto. Not to be confused with sofrito cooking sauce, soffritto is a today almost vanished stew consisting of the pig’s, uh, “variety meats” in tomato sauce. Years ago I tried it at an old-fashioned Italian restaurant in Connecticut. It was horrible.