Zuckers-- an old fashioned concept in modern dress

Heard comedian Mel Brooks  on Public Radio here the other day talking about how typically some Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe would come to NYC and open a little store selling smoked fish and a few food items...

I suppose Zuckers in Midtown probably started off that way, but in its present form it is as you can see a much classier looking place than that.

Some of the stores that are in the Zuckers category are I believe in the category of "Appetizing" rather than " Delicatessen"-- such as the famous Russ and Daughters on the Lower East Side.

Traditionally, one of the main features of these old places was the owner "schmoozing" with the patrons, whom he often got to know quite well...all their little triumphs and also their "tsouris"-- soft pedaling the triumphs, usually, because , like their Sicilian neighbors, many of them were  afraid of boasting and bringing on the curse of the Evil Eye--

Don't know how much of the schmoozing goes on in Zuckers, because it is not in its traditional kind of neighborhood. But I am sure it busy serving up lox and bagels with a schmeer all the time just as always...