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Zingone Brothers, the family-run grocer that’s been part of the Upper West Side for nearly a century, is closing at the end of the month, and longtime customers are already making plans to stop in and say goodbye.
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The store at 471 Columbus Avenue, between 82nd and 83rd streets, will close for good on November 30. A family member shared the news on Reddit on Friday, writing that the store will be “closing our doors on November 30th, 2026 after serving the community for nearly 100 years.” I Love the Upper West Side called the store, which confirmed the closing.The post, signed by the Zingone family, thanked the Upper West Side and the wider NYC community for their years of shopping there and said they hoped to see people around the neighborhood.
The store’s story goes back to 1927, when Italian immigrant Domenic Zingone founded the market, as we noted earlier this year when Angelo Zingone died at 88. Angelo was born on Italy’s Amalfi Coast in 1938 and came to New York in his late teens. He went to work at the store his uncles and cousins ran on Columbus Avenue, spent his whole working life there, and kept stopping by to see relatives, customers and friends after he retired.
In a 2022 profile, CBS New York reported that Nicholas Zingone Jr. was running the store with his father, brother and cousins. His grandfather came to New York on a ship from Naples in 1920, bought the building, and later passed the business down to his sons. “It’s been working for 100 years, and we hope to make it another 100 after this,” Nicholas told the station.
CBS described the store as much more than a place to pick up produce and hardware. Nicholas’s brother Ricardo described Zingone Brothers as a place neighbors come to find out what was going on around the area. His cousin Dominic compared it to a local barber shop where people liked to shop and chat, and said the family could put customers in touch with an electrician, a plumber or just about anyone else they needed. Neighbors trusted the family so much that they left spare house keys in a key box at the store in case of emergencies.
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The store had its moment in the spotlight more recently, when Olivia Rodrigo shot her new music video for “Stupid Song” inside. Rodrigo played piano in the middle of the store, but Oliver, Zingone Brothers’ resident cat, may have stolen the show. He wandered the aisles wearing a tiny camera that filmed the story from his point of view. Oliver came up a lot in the Reddit comments, and one neighbor asked where he’ll live once the store closes.Reactions came quickly. One commenter who said they’d lived in the neighborhood since 1978 wrote that they’d assumed the store would be there forever and planned to stop in to say goodbye. Another called it one of the last institutions left from their Upper West Side childhood, and a parent said their kids would take this closing harder than any other they’ve seen.
Neighbors who want to visit one last time have until November 30.
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