Throggs Neck, The Bronx

A corner store
with a first name

In 1988, Anthony DiGirolamo opened a deli and grocery on Philip Avenue. Nobody called him Anthony. They called him Geronimo, and pretty soon that’s what they called the store too.

For close to thirty years he stood behind that counter. He knew what you ordered before you said it. He had a dry, needling sense of humour that people around here still quote at each other. The place was half deli, half clubhouse — Italian cold cuts and cheese on one side, sausage and pasta and olive oil and spices on the other, and a line of neighbours in between who weren’t in any particular hurry.

Anthony died in August 2017. He was 54. The store changed hands, then changed names, then closed during the pandemic — and the block went right on calling that corner Geronimo’s, because that’s what it was.

Frank Bevilacqua grew up in this neighbourhood alongside Anthony, and reopened the deli as Geronimo’s II. Same street, same idea: Boar’s Head cut to order, salads made in the back and sold by the pound, hot Italian trays and party heroes, and the Italian groceries — cured meats, sausage, pasta, olive oil, spices — that were always half the reason to walk in. Ask Frank what to get and he’ll tell you the classic Italian sub.

That’s the whole plan. A counter where somebody knows your order, on a block that never wanted a different one.

How it got here

• 1988

  Geronimo opens the doors

  Anthony DiGirolamo starts a deli and grocery in Throggs Neck and runs it himself.

• 2017

  The counter goes quiet

  Anthony dies in August at 54, after nearly thirty years behind it.

• After

  New owners, new sign

  The store is sold and rebranded, then closes during the pandemic. Everyone keeps calling it Geronimo’s regardless.

• Now

  Geronimo’s II

  Frank Bevilacqua reopens it at 3211 Philip Avenue, with Anthony’s plaque on the wall.

The history on this page follows reporting by the Bronx Times.