Well macelleria is not the word i was thinking of any way... it might have been a pork store.. since both the italian and german neighborhoods had pork stores as well as butchers.. (and the italian ones had ravioli stores, too, that just sold stuffed pasta of every sort, but mostly ravioli's!)
We also had dairy stores, that sold all kinds of cheese, milk, butter and dairy foods, no meats, and appatizing shops oh they were the best..
big barrels of pickles, and olives, bin after bin of dried fruits and nuts, whole spices, tea, coffee, and ready made salads, cole slaw, potato, macaroni, garden, fruit, egg, and something similar to scotch eggs, hard boiled eggs, wrapped in meat, then dipped in bread crumbs, and deep fried-- you could get them hot or cold.. and chopped chichen liver pate and anchovies.. fresh made cottage cheese, farmers cheese and cream cheese, pickled fish, and smoked fish, and all sorts of wonderful foods..
deli's (delicatesians) sold some of the same stuff, but more cold cuts of meats and cheeses-- and they sold ready to eat food, sandwiches to go, (very few foods in appatizing shops were "take out lunches" and if you bought a salad, they didn't stock plastic forks, they way deli's did)
Most of these small shops are gone now, and the deli section in the grocery only has a small selection compared to what used to be available.
and all these stores came in different stripes! you could find italian one, or german ones, or kosher ones.. and each had a different selection! (well, there weren't any kosher pork stores, but everything else!) Bakeries too, Italian bakers and jewish bakers made the best bread, but german and french bakeries made the best cakes, we like a jewish style cheese cake, not italian, and we all disliked italian pasties, but loved ruggala,--but if you wanted a danish, or some pie, off to sutters, the french bakery.. and the best crumb cakes came from the german bakeries!
now days, the best fish stores in ny are chinese, an the best fruit and vegetable stores are korean, and all the dinners are greek, but the street venders are all mid eastern, selling falafals, and other mid eastern foods.
