Village Gourmet Deli
79-16 Eliot Avenue
Middle Village, NY 11379
Tel: (718) 457-8938
Fax: (718) 457-8944
Open seven days a week from breakfast through early evening, Village Gourmet allows a person to eat three delicious meals a day at affordable prices without sacrificing taste or quality.
After reopening this past April under another name and new management, the owner of Village Gourmet has put together the formula for a successful sandwich and Italian food shop – top quality fresh ingredients and great service at relatively inexpensive prices.
Upon walking into Village Gourmet, customers are greeted by amiable workers who will aid them in choosing among freshly prepared hot foods, signature sandwiches or their own hero creations.
Owner/operator Mario Ruffo is often behind the counter making sandwiches. Mario’s mother, Josephine, oversees the kitchen. She and assistant cook, Antonio, prepare all of the delicious dishes, like ravioli with vodka sauce, stuffed mushrooms, potatoes and eggs and eggplant rollatini which rival the quality and taste of any five-star restaurant. Pasta dishes like spaghetti carbonara, penne with pesto and cavatelli with marinara are made daily and remind one of a traditional Italian Sunday dinner. The fresh sauces have no hint of preservatives and are akin to the pots of sauces that sit on the stove for six hours being constantly stirred and fussed over at the holidays.
The people behind the counter, Mario and his trusted associates, Charlie, Pino, Robert and Baldo (“Buddy”), treat each customer with respect and will often make suggestions if one is indecisive given all of the tremendous choices. Great detail is put into every dish, from the seafood salad that combines calamari, shrimp, a touch of olive oil and lemon for an out of this world flavor, to the delicious pasta dishes like penne al pesto or linguini with white clam sauce. Poultry dishes like chicken marsala, chicken francese and roasted chicken taste like they came straight out of your grandmother’s kitchen.
While all of their sandwiches contain traditional favorites, Village Gourmet goes the extra mile, with freshly baked bread, Boar’s Head cold cuts piled high and healthy portions of cheese. If you are in the mood for side salads, they have some of the best German potato salad, macaroni salad and cole slaw around.
In addition, if you need a sandwich platter for a PTA meeting or trays of chicken rollatini and tortellini alfredo for a baptism, Village Gourmet is the place to cater your next party.
Space limits us in mentioning more of the vast food choices you have at Village Gourmet. You have to give credit for all of this to the owner who is young, bright and ambitious and is eager to please his customers. Mario loves Middle Village and would eventually like to buy a house here for his wife and two young sons.
Stop in at Village Gourmet located directly opposite Met Food on Eliot Avenue in Middle Village. Let Mario and his staff help you sample some of the delights of this truly innovative Old World-style deli.
