Brooklyn pork store's closure after 55 years underscores sad exodus of beloved Italian mainstays: ‘We didn't leave you — you left us'

New York Post

24-06-2025

After 55 years as a tasty Italian hallmark of Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood, Bari Pork Store is cutting its last slice of gabagool on Saturday, June 29.
'It feels like I'm losing a big part of my life,' co-owner George Firrantello told The Post of the impending closure of the beloved shop, which first opened in 1969 on 18th Avenue.
Firantello said he had no choice but to say ciao.
'Some of my customers coming in are devastated,' Firrantello said. 'They say, 'Oh, you guys are leaving us.' No, no, no. We didn't leave you — you left us.'
15 Nino Manning (seated), Javier Castillo and co-owners Tony Turrigiano and George Firrantello pose for a photo at Bari Pork Store in Bensonhurst. After more than half a century, the business is closing its doors.
Michael McWeeney
Firantello is referring to the changing demographics of Bensonhurst, which was once flourishing with Italian-American businesses and the clientele to match.
Just this month, right up the street from Bari, another neighborhood hallmark, SAS Italian Records, also played its final song. It opened in 1967.
'These days, there's just not enough customers coming into the place,' Firantello said of his exit after running Bari for the past 26 years alongside partner Tony Turrigiano, the latter putting in 37 years of pork-store service.
'It means a lot to me that the store has meant a lot to a lot of people. I know kids who came in who now have kids of their own,' Firantello said. 'We've fed a lot of families over the course of the years.'
15 'It feels like I'm losing a big part of my life,' co-owner George Firrantello told The Post of his beloved neighborhood business.
Michael McWeeney
15 Parmigiano cheese and prosciutto are on display in a deli case.
Michael McWeeney
15 Co-owner George Firrantello, who has been at Bari for 25 years, takes some meat to be sliced from the refrigerator.
Michael McWeeney
But an exodus of customers isn't the only headwind Firrantello has fought.
'Running the store has just gotten more expensive, between the rent, electricity, insurance, payroll tax, and so on and so forth,' he said.
Their heartbroken landlord even offered to reduce the rent to keep the store in business.
'But it still would have been too high,' said Firrantello. 'In my head, I'm saying, 'How much could you reduce it? $500? What would $500 do for me?''
The partners also looked into selling the business. But according to Firrantello, 'Nobody was really interested.'
That underscores a big shift for the area.
15 Behind the counter, Nino Mannino, who has been at Bari for 15 years, helps a customer named Agnes with an order.
Michael McWeeney
15 Firrantello shares a smile from behind the counter stocked with canned tomatoes, prepared-food menus and more.
Michael McWeeney
When it comes to Italian pork stores, the titular animal is more colloquial as they tend to sell everything from sandwiches to pantry items, breadcrumbs, olives, cheese and the like.
'Pork stores are a staple of many Italian-American communities, especially here in the Northeast,' Anthony 'Tony Mangia' Scillia, a New Jersey-based influencer who highlights Italian businesses across the tri-state area, told The Post.
'The butchers and proprietors usually know their customers on a first-name basis,' said Scillia.
15 Co-owner George Firrantello, who has been at Bari Pork Store for 25 years, takes an order over the phone as the Bensonhurst fixture prepared to close its doors.
Michael McWeeney
15 Firrantello trims meat to be used in the shop's popular sausages.
Michael McWeeney
15 Firrantello weighs a brown-wrapped deli treat for a customer.
Michael McWeeney
Perhaps that's why famous faces, including 'The Sopranos' vets Steve Schirripa and the late Tony Sirico, were fans of Bari in particular, Firrantello said.
'They have a connection to the community. When you went into the store they knew your order,' Scillia explained. 'And to be honest, the quality of the items in these stores are always far superior to the big supermarkets.'
Bari is especially known for its luscious, fresh mozzarella along with plump, signature sausages, the recipe for which is sailing into the sunset as well.
'I'm gonna take that with me,' a steadfast Firrantello said.
15 Turrigiano, a Bari fixture for nearly 40 years, ties sausage links.
Michael McWeeney
15 A display case shows off freshly made sausage.
Michael McWeeney
While there are seemingly thriving shops — including Faccio's Italian Specialties' multiple locations around the city, the ever-busy Emily's Pork Store in Williamsburg and Calabria Pork Store on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx — old-school pork stores are becoming a dying breed even beyond Firrantello's neighborhood.
G. Esposito and Sons Pork Store in Carroll Gardens closed in 2023 after 100 years in business, while the decades-old Mario's Butcher Store on Brooklyn's Metropolitan Avenue shuttered in 2022 after the death of its eponymous owner, Mario Zollo.
Over in Little Italy, the 130-year-old Alleva Dairy said arrivederci last year as well.
German pork stores also aren't immune to the trend, with Ridgewood's Morscher's Pork Store closing in 2024 after seven decades. Meanwhile, the restaurant Zum Stammtisch's pork store offshoot, open since 2011, shut its doors earlier this year as well.
'It makes me feel terrible, but what can we do?' said Sicilia.
15 A longtime customer named Alberta says goodbye to Turrigiano …
Michael McWeeney
15 … and the longtime co-owner accepts her hug as Firrantello looks on.
Michael McWeeney
15 Turrigiano who has been at Bari for nearly 40 years, talks with the original owner, John Buttaro (right), who owned Bari Pork Store from 1969 to 1988.
Michael McWeeney
'If we don't go back to the old neighborhoods and support these places, what choice do they really have? Many of the younger generations are not following in their parents' and grandparents' footsteps when it comes to pork stores or even old school red sauce joints.'
Ray Guarini, who runs the popular Instagram account Italian Enclaves and is author of the book 'New York City's Italian Neighborhoods,' helped announce Bari's closure.
At the time, he called it 'the hardest video in our many years of documenting Italian neighborhoods and businesses.'
'The area changed so drastically, we just can't keep up anymore,' said Turrigiano in a video.
Noted one commenter of many who bemoaned the loss: 'This is heartbreaking, I will always remember going here with my dad.'
'A lot of people have expressed their sadness about it, and I'm saddened myself,' Guarini told The Post.
15 Firrantello and Turrigiano work side-by-side to make sausage.
Michael McWeeney
'But I admire them. What they have done all of these years by preserving the business as a living piece of our culture is commendable.'
However, don't expect much fanfare when Firrantello locks Bari's door for the last time: He has no big plans for the final day.
'Hopefully it goes fast, and then I just wanna walk away and take a nice picture outside with my partner,' he said.
'Then Monday, I'm probably gonna stay home with my wife and enjoy a couple of weeks with her. And then go look for a job.'