BENSONHURST’S DISAPPEARING ITALIANS

WHEN I grew up in Bay Ridge, I frequently traveled through neighboring Bensonhurst by bus or bike. I frequently think of NYC neighborhoods in sports terms, and I put Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Sunset Park and Borough Park into “Brooklyn’s Southeast Division.” In the 1970s, Bensonhurst, named for the family of colonial-era patriot Egbert Benson, was nearly completely Italian. I remember the celebrations touched off by Italy’s World Cup victory in 1982. Though mainly filmed in Bay Ridge, John Travolta’s Manero family and friends in “Saturday Night Fever” were supposed to love in Bensonhurst. Today, Bensonhurst has flipped to a mainly South Asian and Russian concentration.

S.A.S Italian Records, #7713 18th Avenue, was founded in 1967 by Italian immigrants Ciro and Rita Conte. The store sold recordings from the old country but also features CDs by Italian-American artists such as Sinatra, Dean Martin, Al Martino, Connie Francis, Louis Prima and also imports such as music, movies, beauty and bath products, soccer novelties, housewares and playing cards. The store permanently closed in 2025 following the death of its owner and subsequent family dispute.

The magnificent Bari chain of delicatessens (“pork store”) which contained spectacular animal cannibal painted signage of a slavering, crown-wearing swine, the personification of the “king of the sausage” tag, holding a string of intestine-encased prepared pork. Bari, also the name of a kitchen supplies wholesaler on the Bowery, is named for a southeastern Italian city on the Adriatic Sea. There were once a number of locations in Bensonhurst and Gravesend, but its Avenue U location closed in 2025 as did its location here at 6319 18th Ave.

Bensonhurst’s Italian past is still marked by numerous social clubs, some of which are depicted on this FNY page.

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6/19/26