D'Agostino

When two teenagers–Nicola (Nick) and Pasquale (Patsy) D’Agostino set out from their home in L’Aquila, Italy to seek their fortunes in the United States. By 1931 they had worked as pushcart peddlers, mill workers and apprentice butchers – anything to earn a buck. One year later, at the depth of the Great Depression, Nick and Patsy pooled their meager resources and opened a small grocery store on Lexington Ave. and 83rd Street in Manhattan. It was small, but unlike anything New York had seen. It was designed to serve the carriage trade.. the mansion-like apartments on Park Ave.. and so, the brothers stocked their store with groceries and baked goods under a single roof. They also provided home delivery for phoned-in orders by Upper East Side residents-and their staff.