Richard Joseph Spinelli sends every first time visitor to the Arthur Avenue Retail Market before anywhere else on the avenue, because the vendors sit side by side under one roof and ten minutes inside teaches more about the neighborhood than an hour of walking past storefronts.

Why the market exists

In the 1930s the streets of New York held tens of thousands of pushcart vendors, and Arthur Avenue was lined with them. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s answer was a program of enclosed public markets. Opening day here was October 29, 1940, and the hall held well over a hundred stalls. The pushcarts moved indoors and the sidewalk was returned to the shops. Most of the city’s markets from that program are gone or changed beyond recognition; this one still does what it was built for.

Walking it

The building is one long hall with a skylight, entered from Arthur Avenue, and the logic of it is that everything a kitchen needs is a few steps from everything else.

The deli counter. The best known stall makes sandwiches to order and fries arancini through the day. The line is the longest at lunch on a Saturday and moves faster than it looks.

The butchers. Two or three meat counters with cuts on display and butchers who will tell you what to do with them. Residents come here on weekdays, which is the better time to ask questions.

Produce. A greengrocer with the basics and the seasonal things the Italian kitchens on the avenue cook with, at counters rather than in packages.

The cigar roller. A stall where cigars are rolled by hand in view of the aisle, a survivor from a different era of the market.

The bar and the tables. A bar and a cluster of tables in the middle of the hall where a sandwich from one counter and a beer from another become lunch. It is the cheapest seat on the avenue and one of the best.

Dry goods and cheese. Olive oil, cheeses, cured meats and the things a resident restocks on the way home.

What to buy on a first visit

If you want Go to Note
Lunch to eat here The deli counter, then the bar tables Arancini travel badly; eat them warm
Something to cook tonight A butcher and the greengrocer Ask what came in that morning
A gift to carry home Dry goods and cheese Hard cheese and oil survive a train ride
A reason to sit for an hour The bar Weekday afternoons are quiet

Two practical notes

Some counters still prefer cash, and the market keeps shopkeepers’ hours rather than restaurant hours, so evenings are not the time to come. The Belmont Business Improvement District keeps the current vendor list, and it is the source for the history above.

Why it matters to the neighborhood

The market is the one place on Arthur Avenue where the street’s two lives, the residents who shop and the visitors who tour, stand in the same line. For the students who rent on the blocks to either side, it is the grocery store. For a visitor it is the introduction. It has been both since 1940, which is the whole point of a public market.