Monday, September 24, 2007

DeRobertis Pasticceria & Caffe

VANISHING? No way.

*Update November 25: De Robertis will close its doors forever on December 5, 2014



The Times got it right when they said that walking into DeRobertis Pasticceria & Caffe on First Avenue in the East Village "is to enter the Italian immigrant experience of the early 20th Century." The tile floor and pressed-tin ceiling are original and not much has changed here since 1904. The shop is still run by the family, and granddaughter Annie was kind enough to chat with me about its history and future.



Annie's family is a local institution. Her father’s father started DeRobertis and her mother’s father started Lanza’s restaurant down the block. Annie first went to work in the shop when she was 11, folding cake boxes and filling cannoli by hand with a knife. I found her on a quiet Friday afternoon sitting in the cafe, reading about city politics in the Post and wondering aloud if she shouldn't just go back to Bari, where her grandfather came from.

She remembers the East Village when it was still filled with Italian and Jewish businesses, whole shops dedicated to single products: pork, fish, freshly made pasta that hung in the windows. “Eleventh Street was all butchers and chicken markets,” she told me, “I used to go with my mother. I was terrified. My mother would pick out a chicken and, boom, they killed it right there.” She recalls the First Avenue Market as a whole world where you could get everything: cheese, clothes, stationery, fabric, buttons, pickles, hats. And the East Village was a place where no one locked their doors. “I’d go into your apartment and leave a note: I borrowed your sugar. And did you care? Of course not.”



The neighborhood has changed tremendously since those days and especially so in the past few years. I asked about her experiences dealing with the newest immigrants to the East Village, the young and affluent. She told me about impatient customers who whine about waiting in line, ignore her help as they talk on cell phones, then want service "right away, right away, right away." But worst of all are the Starbucks people:

“People come in and tell me I don’t know how to make cappuccino," Annie said, incredulous. (She's only been making the beverage for 50 years.) "They tell me, 'Starbucks makes it this way.' I tell them, 'I’m here before Starbucks.' They want flavors. I tell them, 'I got flavors. You want a flavor? I’ll put it in.' Put it in? They look at me," with a look of disbelief. "Do these people really think the coffee bean grows in flavors? Like it comes in hazelnut and mint? These are people with college educations. But they want Starbucks. So I tell them, very nicely I say," with a wave of her hand, "So go to Starbucks.”

After 9/11 it seemed the older people moved out and the younger ones moved in. The traditional Italian pastries don’t do as well as they used to. Millefoglie and sfogliatelle aren’t as popular as the “fancier stuff” that DeRobertis offers, like their many mousses introduced by head baker, Tony, who came from Ecuador and has been with the store since he was 18. He’s family now.


John & Annie

There’s a lot of La Famiglia in this family business. Annie’s nephew John helps her and her brothers run the shop. He’s fourth generation and counting. The family owns the building and, thankfully, no one’s interested in selling. Every year, 35 members from all 5 generations gather on Thanksgiving for a big dinner in the cafe. They bring food and warm it up in the baker’s ovens down in the basement. I asked Annie if she thought the store would last through the next generation.

“Like my father used to say,” she told me with a shrug, “It’s here if they want it and if they don’t, what can I do?”

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love DeRobertis. It was one of my most memorable first adult feeling adventures - skipping a class and taking a double lunch break from (the old) Stuyvesant HS to go there for cannoli and cappucinos. I remember going there once with an older man and being incredibly self-conscious about pronouncing "espresso" correctly (I think I did nonetheless insert an "x" in the first syllable) - then being disappointed that it wasn't the one with the frothy milk! I learned how to drink coffee there.

Anonymous said...

I love De Robertis too--their ices are great as well as their biscottis with nuts dipped in dark chocolate--doesn't get better than this--I love Veniero's too--they made my wedding cake--
I just remembered a vanishing pork and meat store on second avenue which sold spare rib tips--the best--long gone-I forget their name but am sure you remember--Esposito's maybe?

Anonymous said...

Perfect. It's places like this that keep me in the East Village, that make it feel like a neighborhood, that connect the past, present, and future, and make this town feel like home.

Artie Gold said...

Greetings Pegleg!

CodeStud3 said...

There's a thinly veiled him of racism and anti newer immigrants in the tone of this article. ...sort of like "our immigrants were better..."

Defunct Books said...

Yes, a hint of racism and anti newer immigrants, like the baker from Ecuador who is "family" now. Sharp analysis, CodeStud3.

Dave - everywhere said...

CodeStud 3...

I think you're misreading this. The "immigrants" she's referring to are the young, clueless hipsters that are making the EV their own private playground.

Pat said...

It says "the newest immigrants to the East Village, the young and affluent." If you were affluent you would not have to come here from Ecuador at 18 and work as a baker. The newest "immigrants" are the Starbuck's people. The guy from Ecuador is "family now" that is not anti-immigrant, they love him.

Unknown said...

What? That is nonsense. There is nothing racist in any of these comments. Why must people go looking for offense where none is given?

laura said...

americans love to be offended. if not personally they will be offended for everyone else, they find racism hiding under every rock. (@least now white folks can also be victims of racism, that more fair. ive waited for this moment, equality @last!!). give us a break already, its tired. (codestud3, it is the right of the italians to like the older immigrants better, they had more in commen). the newer ones sound ignorant, as well as arrogant. everyone knows that starbucks adds syrips to the coffee, w/many chemicals. @least they did that several years back. maybe now they buy the coffee which comes flavored, it is a better quality. maybe the italians will buy it too. ignornace has no boundaries, how dare some kid tell an old italian family how to make espresso.

HippieChick said...

God, the stupidity. Have people got a tin ear for sarcasm now? Whatever would "A Modest Proposal" do to their delicate sensibilities? Anyway, I love DeRobertis and I love their lemon ice beyond all right reason. Chocolate pretty darn good. I bring all my out of town visitors here and they are completely charmed. One, an Oscar nominated actress, was semi-recognized by the staff and so cool are they that nobody said a thing about it till the next time I came in (alone), when they politely wondered who she had been. That's REAL New Yorkers.

Anonymous said...

Unbelievably sad.

Mark said...

when is the actual closing date? hard to believe...

Jeremiah Moss said...

Dec. 5 it's gone

Kosmo Vinyl said...

Joe Strummer once filmed an interview in there, a few years before he died. He really liked the place and we snuck out the back door to check out the yard. He said to me "Can you imagine all the shit that went down in this yard over the years ?".