Zabar's

Zabar's spans a row of storefronts along Broadway between Eightieth and Eighty-First Streets, marked by a massive marquee that dominates the sidewalk. It began in nineteen thirty-four as a twenty-two-foot-wide shop in the Crystal Pure Food Market, where Ukrainian immigrants Louis and Lillian Zabar sold coffee, smoked fish, and appetizing staples. Louis Zabar, a stickler for quality, spent his early years personally inspecting fish at smokehouses and roasting his own coffee beans.