9 mom-and-pop grocery stores in CNY where you can skip the supermarket struggle

Syracuse, N.Y. — It might take Pat Dalton three or four trips to buy everything on his short grocery shopping list for the day.

By noon last Wednesday, he had already picked up cold cuts at Green Hills Farms Market in Nedrow, and then it was off to Thanos Import Market on the the North Side for bread, cheese and olives. Before he’s done, he still may head to Nichols in Liverpool for meat and maybe Lombardi’s or Vince’s Imports for any deli items he may have forgotten along the way.

Yes, he knows he could easily clear his list with one stop at any large chain superstore.

“For years people would make fun of me because I go to different stores for specific items. They still do, but not as much,” he said. “I have always shopped here because of the people; you don’t get the personal touch at the big stores. You also don’t always get the brands you want; you get the brand they want you to get, and you usually end up buying more than you had planned.”

Pat may be onto something here. Shopping for holiday meals is stressful enough as it is. Fighting for a spot in a mall-size parking lot and shuffling shoulder-to-shoulder through 20-plus aisles to gather a few ingredients before waiting in a line 10 deep to check out can zap you of any holiday spirit you walked in with.

Most of us shop at the big stores, simply out of convenience. We can easily knock off our shopping list in one stop. But Central New Yorkers are blessed with other options.

For example, the meats at Mazzye’s and the fish at Asia Food Market are cut in front of you to your specs, not in an out-of-town warehouse. You can watch bakers at Green Hills create breads and pastries, and better yet, you can smell them coming out of the oven. You’ll discover the most expensive Italian olive oil at Lombardi’s or Vince’s might cost less than the least expensive generic brand from the big guys.

“It’s not the size of the store that matters; it’s what’s inside that matters,” said Mike Hennigan, the third-generation owner of Nichols Supermarket in Liverpool. “The people inside here matter, both the employees and the customers.”

Here are nine local mom-and-pop stores you should consider while putting together your menus for Christmas or New Year’s Eve. Here you will find a deep variety of offerings and an unmatched attention to detail and service, all while lowering your blood pressure.

Green Hills Farms

Address: 5933 S. Salina St., Syracuse; open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. (315) 492-1707

Attention Shoppers: It’s hard to pick just one “best” here. See, the deli at Green Hills is known for some of the best giant sandwiches and fried haddock in Onondaga County. Many swear it has the best bakery, and many will go out of their way for what they consider the best meats and produce.

Carl and Susan Jackson drive from their home in LaFayette each week to stock up on everything they say is the best.

“The whole place is the best because if you need anything, they’ll get it for you here,” said Carl said while picking out a couple steaks for dinner. New York strips are on sale this week for $8.99 per pound. “If I want I thicker steak, I just have to ask and they’ll cut it for me. We don’t need to go anywhere else. They have everything here.”

He’s not kidding. While Carl picked out that night’s beef, Susan took a look at the aisle directly across that dedicated nine shelves to just mustard. Yes, NINE freakin’ shelves for just one condiment. Some are locally made, some are national brands you’ve never heard of. There might be a generic brand hidden in there somewhere. The selection goes well beyond basic yellow, dijon or German. This big little supermarket has raspberry mustard, garlic mustard, wasabi mustard, pumpkin honey mustard and “Hot As Hell” mustard. Once you get past that spread of spreads, you’ll run into six shelves of barbecue sauces, marinades and spice rubs.

Where the meat aisle ends, the bakery begins. The bakers here work overnight making oversized glazed croissants, hefty apple fritters that span 6 to 8 inches in diameter and half-moon cookies. You can fill a box with a dozen New York City-style bagels and not taste two of the same flavor. Oh, and that dozen will set you back just $7.20, less than half what a big supermarket is charging these days.

The produce department stocks locally grown fruits and vegetables.

“Our shelves show we support local businesses, and that includes farmers,” said Holly Bucci, the assistant produce manager here. “We have one farmer (Ben Brownson of Kirkville) who only grows for us. We’re like family.”

That’s what keeps the Jacksons coming back. That, and the fact that they can get in and out of this store in under an hour with everything they’ll need for the week.

Thanos Import Market

Address: 105 Green St., Syracuse. Open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (315) 422-4085

Attention Shoppers: Thanos Market was a bit quieter than usual last week. Many of the customers at this 104-year-old store are Syracuse University students, and they started heading home for Winter Break. A few stopped in on their way out of town to buy some hard-to-find culinary Christmas gifts and snap up one last sandwich for the trip.

This 1,000-square-foot store is one of few places you can find imported pastas, cheeses, olives, grape leaves and even soft drinks. Owner Soula Carni says she specializes in hard-to-find ingredients so her customers can create gourmet meals at home.

“So many students here are from New York City or Boston, and we remind them of the stores they visit back home. We have a little bit of everything in this little store,” Carni said. “Charcuterie boards are big now. We have unusual items that are great on boards.”

She even sells the milled butcher-block boards that hold charcuterie. That’s what brought Pat Dalton to Thanos, Green Hills and others last week. His daughter, McKenna, is a junior at Colgate University and wanted to put a board together to celebrate the end of semester.

He walked into Thanos needing olives and cheese. He walked out with four varieties of each and a loaf of Pastabilities’ stretch bread. He also ordered a turkey sandwich with hot American cheese and roasted pepper aioli on stretch bread to eat on his way to a work meeting.

“In and out with everything I need, and I’ll still make my meeting on time,” he said.

Lombardi’s Imports

Address: 534 Butternut St, Syracuse. Open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (315) 472-5900

Attention Shoppers: Every aisle in this Italian imports market serves a purpose. The coolers on the right side of the store are full of homemade dinners like lobster ravioli and spinach-stuffed shells waiting for you to pop into the oven. There’s an aisle dedicated to housemade and Italian-made pastas, so obviously there’s an aisle of just sauces. The marinara on two of these shelves are all local Upstate New York brands. The next aisle is nothing but olive oil.

“The Sicilian oils are the best obviously, but it all depends on what you need it for,” said Gina Trouesdale. Her father, Dominic Lombardi, opened this store nearly 54 years ago. “Is it for cooking? Is it for dipping? For salads? There’s a different one for each. We will find the one you need.”

Snacks and sweets are big sellers during Christmastime. They’ve put together trays of Italian cookies, and a couple shelves are full of taralli, an Italian wheat-based cracker similar in texture to a thin breadstick or a bald pretzel. While the taralli can be sweet or savory, fennel is the most common flavor. They’ve also stocked up on torrone, a nougat confection with toasted almonds shaped either into a rectangular tablet or a round cake.

Other holiday staples here include scungilli (the meat of a large sea snail), panettone (a sweet, Italian bread or fruitcake) and lupini (pickled beans that have a sweet, nutty flavor and firm texture).

The deli is the most popular department here. Dominic is known for his high-end sandwiches. You can also get pretty much any type of olive, cheese or imported meat here. That includes a 250-pound oblong tube of Auricciho provolone cheese hanging from the ceiling.

If you need stocking stuffers for the gourmet cook in your family, Lombardi’s has Italian coffees and makers that create the perfect cup. You’ll find foreign kitchen utensils, a wall full of aprons and imported baskets to fill with all their goodies.

Vince’s Gourmet Imports

Address: 440 S. Main St., North Syracuse. Open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; closed Sunday. (315) 452-1000

Attention Shoppers: Sam Mondello calls his store “a shop for good people by good people.” He and his family opened 18 years ago. His father-in-law is Vince Lombardi, as in Lombardi’s Imports just 5½ miles south. This Italian market also offers pre-packaged pasta dishes, meatballs and boneless baccala (salted cod). They, too, dedicate an aisle to sauces, an aisle to homemade pastas and one to olive oils and spices.

Like all the stores in this grocery store tour, Vince’s has personality. When you walk into the brightly-lit grocery, you’re greeted with a smile and a simple question: “What can I help you find today?”

Last Sunday, Mondello gathered his staff from the deli department. Most of them had served time at large stores before coming here.

“I asked them how the customers at the bigger stores were,” Mondello said. “They shrugged and said ‘eh.’ They didn’t really know how they were. I then asked them how the customers are here. They all commented how nice they are, and how they’ve gotten to know many of the familiar faces. That’s because we expect them to engage them, be helpful, have a conversation. It makes a difference.”

So what’s a specialty here? A tray of arancini from Vince’s is always a hit at any Christmas party, and you just need to place the order in advance and pick them up on your way to the celebration. For you do-it-yourselfers, you can learn how to make these bite-sized arborio rice balls in the store. Vince’s offers several classes throughout the week, and they sell out quickly.

Once you take a class, you might want a pasta maker. Vince’s sells those and plenty of other kitchen utensils to match. You also might want something flashy to hold your pasta. Mondello just returned from Italy where he bought plenty of hand-painted ceramic serving bowls.

Nichols Supermarket

Address: 327 1st St., Liverpool. Open daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (315) 457-2151

Attention Shoppers: This supermarket smackdab in the middle of the village has a motto: “Get in. Get out. Get on with life.” It’s no different now than it was three generations ago. Mike Hennigan, the store’s owner, prides himself in the fact that his family’s approach to business hasn’t changed in 40 years.

Just before the dinner rush last Thursday, seven butchers were working away cutting steaks, grinding beef, rolling roasts and deboning chickens. Nick Bell walked in to get some burgers and a few other ingredients for dinner. He knows where everything is, and he knows he will get out quickly and get on with his life.

“I used to come here with my great-grandmother a long time ago,” he told Hennigan. “It’s really no different. I like that. I like that I know so many of the people here.”

Hennigan thanked him with one of his business cards, which is good for a free dozen large eggs at the checkout register.

The customers here decide what gets stocked on the shelves. They like local brands of marinara sauce, so Hennigan makes sure to order plenty from Syracuse, Utica and Whitesboro. They want pasta imported from Italy. Done. They want Boar’s Head cold cuts and homemade soups in the deli each day. Fine.

“Our customers have a respect for real freshness, so we give it to them,” Hennigan said. “You have to respect the customer.”

Nojaim Brothers

Address: 27 E. Main St, Marcellus. Open daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (315) 673-3042

Attention Shoppers: An elderly man in the parking lot struggled to transfer his groceries from a shopping cart to his car’s trunk on a sunny morning last week. A younger fellow who had just parked nearby ran over and helped him. He then replaced the cart on his way into the store.

“Of course he did,” said Rich Nojaim, the owner of this Marcellus market. “It’s all about the people here. Without them, we wouldn’t exist. About 41 years ago, my father said ‘We’re going to be a neighbor here. Neighbors help each other.’ He was right. We help each other.”

A group of six to eight gentlemen gather here each morning, grab a cup of coffee and solve the world’s problems for about 20 to 45 minutes. They then shop for a few items and go about their day. Nojaim has never charged them for coffee.

“Neighbors don’t charge each other for coffee,” he said, stopping for a second to help a woman find chicken broth.

Mazzye’s Meats

Address: 7252 Oswego Road, Liverpool. Open Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (315) 457-3697

Attention Shoppers: Don’t call Drew D’Angelo a butcher. His grandfather was a butcher, but D’Angelo was a celebrated chef who regularly bought hundreds of pounds of Polish sausage here and smoked it. He ended up buying this Liverpool meat market from Frank and Dave Mazzye in 2021.

“Now I’m a chef who became a meat cutter,” he said near the end of his day on Thursday. “I know meat, and for 18 years I came here to get what I needed because it was the best. The big stores can’t do what I do.”

D’Angelo gets his angus just after the cow is slaughtered. From there, he cuts with purpose. Some cuts end up in his cooler to dry age for a month or two. Some wind up as brisket. Some head to the 1-year-old smoker he’s already outgrown to become cornstrami, his own blend of corned beef and pastrami. What’s left is eventually broken down for his own ground beef, stock and demi-glace.

He does more than just meat here. In the 87 hours he puts in here each week, he also makes his own side dishes, cookies and designs spice rubs to use on his meat. He also works with local companies and breweries to get their products on his grocery shelves.

Chef Drew puts his specials on his Facebook page, usually along with a few fun videos of his week’s offerings. This week marks the return of his tomahawk steaks, and he’s got a few hundred pounds of sausage ready to go.

Mazzye’s sells packages of meat for different situations. For example, his Comfort Food Pack ($69) is 2 pounds of meatballs, 2 pounds of stew beef, a chuck roast, a pork roast, a whole chicken and 2 pounds of sausage. Remember, everything was cut, ground, smoked and mixed here. (I’ll be returning to buy a $40 Breakfast Pack for Christmas morning. It has his own applewood smoked bacon, link sausage, corned beef hash, biscuit gravy, pan sausage and a dozen eggs.)

As Chef Drew articulated how important customer service is here, an employee interrupted to say Alexi, a regular here, was on the phone asking if she could get 4 pounds of beef ground for dinner tonight.

“Of course. Just have her give me 30 minutes or so,” he responded. “OK, where were we? Oh yes, I will always give my customers what they want, but they’re going to get meat they can’t get anywhere else.”

Spera’s

Address: 6250 Route 31, Cicero. Open Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (315) 699-4422

Attention Shoppers: For its size, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can fulfill your week’s shopping list at Spera’s. This store has just six aisles, a very busy deli and a full-scale butcher department. Tony Spera, who opened this grocery in 1982, used the markets he visited as a child in Italy as inspiration for his business. His mission was to provide good food to his friends and family.

The left side of the store is a carnivore’s paradise. This is the butcher shop, where they offer free cutting, wrapping and custom-made roasts. You’ll find plain cut-up chickens, and they’ll have some rubbed with their own spices and flash-wrapped. You can get Tony Spera’s own meatballs cooked or uncooked. They dedicate an entire cooler of the area’s most popular brands of sausage: Basilio-Buda, Gianelli, Hofmann and, of course, Spera’s. You can get breakfast patties or pan, hot or sweet, with or without peppers and onions. You get the picture. If you need seasoning for your meats, they’ve placed 10 shelves of Buck’s seasoning and seven shelves of Wing-A-Lings dry rubs at the meat department’s entrance.

The deli gets real busy real fast between 11:30 and 1, but it’s staffed appropriately to get you in and out quickly. They use local bread, Boar’s Head cold cuts and fresh produce from Aisle 1. They also make their own potato salad and other side dishes, including strawberry fluff, pistachio fluff and orange fluff.

They’re very busy this week preparing holiday orders of party subs, Italian Christmas cookies and deli trays custom-made for up to 50 people.

Asia Food Mart

Address: 1449 Erie Blvd East, Syracuse. Open daily 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (315) 478-9888

Attention Shoppers: You don’t need to be cooking Asian food to shop here. In fact, you’re going to find a surprisingly large selection of produce, meats, seafood and grains. But of course, you will find plenty of ingredients for Japanese, Korean and Chinese cooking.

This 25,000-square-foot supermarket opened in 2015. Owners Rockey Ren and Qing Li also have a store in Buffalo and Rochester. They’re the largest markets of their kind outside of New York City.

“We take pride in providing the widest, freshest variety of Asian groceries in upstate New York,” they said on the store’s website.

The on-premise bakery makes its red bean mooncakes, egg custard tarts, roast pork buns and almond cakes daily. You can also special order desserts here.

The produce department carries locally grown and imported fruits and vegetables, including seasonal items such as lychee, custard apples and dragon fruit. This is where you go when you want giant oyster mushrooms, hot peppers and bamboo shoots. Those are right next to the preserved duck eggs and tofu.

The seafood department is wide open for customers to pick out any newly deceased fish they desire and plop it onto the scale for a fishmonger to weigh, cut and wrap to your liking. They stock striped bass, mackerel, and various species of sharks. You can pick a live lobster swimming in a tank for $12.99 per pound or one lying on ice for $5.99.

If you’re going to try to make your own sushi, this is where you’ll want to grab the bluefin tuna, cuttlefish and salmon. You’ll also be able to get any type of rice imaginable. If you’re preparing a Feast of the Seven Fishes, you can load up on smoked salmon, clams, shrimp, calamari, and lobster and crab right from the tank.

These nine stores barely touch what we have here. You can obviously find excellent meats at butcher shops like Liehs & Steigerwald and Dominick’s Market on the North Side, M Ascioti’s Meatballs and Cummo’s Meat Market out west. You can get ultra-fresh vegetables from Andy’s Produce and Peter Guinta & Sons. You can buy seafood at Fish Cove and Lorenzo’s Wholesale Foods. We also have some of the best bakeries around.

They all have one thing in common: customer service. They also seem to cheer for each other.

Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, Nojaim Brothers was one of 17 Hometown Markets, an organization grocers formed to get the best prices from distributors. That’s since dissipated, but the mom-and-pop stores stick together, Nojaim said.

“We’re dinosaurs, but we’re still going. You have to go to Nichols. They do a great job,” Nojaim said of this journey. “Are you going to Spera’s? He’s great. We’re lucky to have so many good stores around here.”

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Charlie Miller finds the best in food, drink and fun across Central New York. Contact him at (315) 382-1984, or by email at cmiller@syracuse.com. (AND he pays for what he and his guests eat and drink, just so you know.) You can also find him under @HoosierCuse on Twitter and on Instagram. Sign up for his free weekly Where Syracuse Eats newsletter here.

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