Big Apple Meat Market

This is the only place in the neighborhood where I can find passion fruit juice! As a good Latin boy who grew up in Brazil, I have to get my passion fruit fix.

I love to cook, and when I crave making ox tail or lamb neck stew, this is where I go. They stock cuts you won’t find in the more curated parts of Manhattan, along with produce that still assumes people actually cook. It is also remarkably affordable. I love walking into their meat refrigerated chamber. I admit to visiting the store with ulterior motives in the very hot summer months just to be able to walk into the refrigerated meat chamber. During a heat wave, it amounts to finding heaven, (only to be sent back to hell).

A grocery store — mostly in the basement — an incredible selection of products, many are Latino oriented. Canned products, spices, proteins, prepared foods.

This family-owned grocery has been around as long as I can remember, moving a few times before ending up in their current location. I'll do my shopping there whenever I can, and love that I can also get altar candles along with my whole chicken for roasting.

This is my go to grocery store. Big Apple Meat Market has the most affordable groceries I've found in NYC. Freshest chicken (preferably thin sliced) and I don't think many people know of this place.

I learned how to food shop by myself there. My grandma and mom would drag me and teach me about the shopping deals. Big Apple Market became fun, it had character. From walking through the plastic curtain doors to walking into the freezer room to being cool with the cashiers. I’m proud to see how far they came and where they are now. Can’t beat those deals.

I like that it has a kind of old-NY feel. The aisles are narrow and ceilings high with items stacked all the way up the tall shelves. Prices are good. Their prepared salads are delicious.

From shopping in their temp space with the sawdust basement floors to their much larger and modern location back at the POD Hotel, they have affordable groceries, friendly staff, great meats and an amazing deli that make it easy to never have to shop at the Overpriced Food Emporium ever again.

My father was a butcher — I grew up in a butcher shop, so I know when it’s good or bad —and their turnover is the fastest you can find, and it’s also reasonably priced.

When I first moved here, it was literally an open air grocery store under a TENT! Now it's a bit fancier in the new gorgeous space under a new apartment building. But you can still get the absolute best steaks in the barrio for the greatest prices!