Profile

Since it was founded in 1973 by Andrea Ceriello, Ceriello Fine Foods has been the specialty store for Italian meats, cheeses and sauces—prepared with a care, precision and devotion to detail that permeates every aspect of the store's presentation. The Grand Central location features a small but impressively select array of meats ranging from its much-touted aged beef and veal to stuffed chicken breasts to the dry Italian sausage sopressatta. Despite the speed with which the supplies are depleted, the stacks of sausages—mild chicken, zesty broccoli rabe, and biting hot Italian, among others—are kept supernaturally tidy, and even the supersized meatballs somehow remain in orderly rows. The same pride in the homemade quality also mark the neatly-labelled jars of fresh sauce (which are also sold in other gourmet stores)—the olive-inflected puttanesca, the clam sauce, and the truly diabolical Fra Diavolo. Demand for the all-natural sauces grew so great in the 1980s, that the store opened its own bottling plant in 1991, and claims to have been the first to bottle vodka sauce. There are a smattering of auxiliary products, including Ceriello's brand salad dressings, and the staff is able to locate any item instantaneously. — Jessica Branch

The Douglaston and Long Island locations also offer international cheeses, produce, and prepared foods like heroes, panini and pastas. Gift baskets and mail orders are also available.