Astoria Market & Deli

gotta throw em another star for the simple fact that theyve helped me out on a few too many late nights when nothing else was open, or when the weather is foul and i only have to walk a minute to get there… plus, i totally bought my xmas tree from them :) a little pricey, but i came with a stand.

If you’d been to this place in years past and swore never to return: REPENT! I left town for two weeks last spring, got home and noticed the crappy corner bodega had shut down (not surprising, it was a shithole — I’d only run in for an occasional can of Coke), then a few days later it reopened. The store was given a complete makeover and new owners who turned it into a little slice of heaven.
I’m honestly in here several times a week. They seems to have everything, so sometimes when the original plan is to stop in before Key Food, the second store is aborted. The produce is probably the best in the neighborhood, the drink selection is insane (multiple brands of kambucha?!), they carry standard and organic everything. A place like this in Williamsburg would absolutely inflate the prices, but I find them extremely reasonable, even more inexpensive than normal. And I just started getting sandwiches here — cheap and so good! My favorite time to visit is early morning on summer weekends just before driving to the Rockaways… they have everything you need to fill a perfect cooler.
I love this place a whole lot. It rarely disappoints. One minor, teenytiny, almost not worth mentioning (but I’m gonna anyway) complaint is that the name is totally forgettable; boyfriend and I have taken to calling it the Corner Store, but still need to clarify when it’s mentioned.

There’s a cat!
This is NOT a good thing. This is a deli/​food establishment…
and THERE’S A CAT!!!
it doesn’t even look like a clean cat, either! It looks like a stray cat. I don’t hate cats. I just them around food. Food I buy. Food I eat. Food that other people prepare.
ugh.
This hurts because before I saw the… cat…I would go there for a burger.
I would get down with the burger. (The double bacon cheeseburger! YES, LAWD.) I would move and groove, shimmy and shake with this burger.
Mmmmm…
and then I saw the CAT. Jumping off shelves, walking around the hot food table (which I’ve never eaten from… doesn’t look that appealing).
So now… I only when I’m nice and drunk… so I don’t remember the CAT.
Other than this burger, I don’t frequent this place. Prices are ridiculous and I can get my stuff for half the price at the Rite Aid or CVS right down the street.