Italian Meateria New Rochelle

For the best dried meats, mozzarella, and sauce. A few shelves lined with specialty olive oils, pastas, and canned tuna and a small area behind the register filled with produce harken back to the original concept for the 1,000-square-foot Quaker Ridge Shopping Center space that owners (and brothers) David and Michael Zingone had for the Italian Meateria. “We set it up as a grocery/fruit/meat market” says Michael, “but we soon realized that many customers were not cooking often and instead wanted prepared foods.” And prepare they do, with many dishes based on Grandma Michelle’s recipes, including a cold case full of takeout homemade soups (beef barley, chicken meatball, split pea); meal-portioned heat-and-eat trays of Italian-American classics (eggplant Parm, meatballs); and a knock-your-socks-off marinara sauce. The deli counter has its own must-try items, including the coleslaw with broccoli, carrots, and cranberries (there are more than 20 house-made prepared salads); sandwiches made on Terranova bread; and a hot lunch station with dishes such as apricot chicken and pork chops with vinegar peppers. While the cooking public may have declined, it’s certainly not dead. Thus the Zingone brothers offer prime meats cut to order (beef brisket, whole prime ribs) from Master Purveyors in the Bronx. “Our father Gennaro owned Four Star Meat Market in the Bronx from the 1950s to 1996,” says Michael. “It’s our legacy to always sell meats.” Don’t Miss: chicken marsala, meat lasagna, house-made mozzarella, marinara sauce, tuna salad, coleslaw, roasted peppers, Thanksgiving specialty sandwich or beef brisket sandwich, Italian wedding soup.