BY CHANDLER KIDD
Brooklyn has its fair share
of great museums. From the
roughly 3,400-year-old stone
likeness of Egyptian lovers
Nebsen and Nebet-ta, to an
18-year-old portrait of stoned
American rapper Snoop Dogg,
the borough’s eponymous Eastern
Parkway repository of fi ne
art — the Brooklyn Museum
— boasts an exquisite, history
spanning collection. Elsewhere,
the Brooklyn Botanic
Garden hosts a world-class gallery
of green stuff, the Brooklyn
Transit Museum has even
older trains than the Transit
Authority, and the Wyckoff
House Museum offers a
glimpse of Brooklyn living —
Dutch style.
But of all the wondrous
reservoirs of knowledge, art,
history, and vintage oddities
housed behind polished panes
of Plexiglas, there’s only one
Kings County museum that
sells fruit.
“Welcome to 1939,” says
Grocer John Cortese, greeting
a shopper on her way into
Golden Gate Fruit Market.
Cortese celebrated the 80th
anniversary of his Flatbush
grocery store on, what else, but
the Fourth of July, and while
it’s not your typical museum by
any standard, there’s plenty of
history on display within this
modest purveyor of produce.
A nearly century old balance
scale hangs from the
shop’s original tin ceiling,
while the pilot light of an ancient
1918 Triplex gas stove
still burns in the back. On the
wall hangs a vintage 1960s
Sunkist banner featuring the
fruit company’s classic logo —
before it sold soft drinks — and
a long-retired, analog cash register
sits operable, but unused,
having been replaced by a newfangled
digital version.
The store is covered in vintage
photographs, including
an autographed photo of Tony
Bennett hanging near a box of
pasta-sits, along with a shot of
the Brooklyn Dodgers featuring
famed slugger Jackie Robinson.
Another famous New
Yorker has also visited the
shop, Cortese said.
“Gil Hodges once came
in the shop. I saw him picking
grapefruits,” he said. “His
hands were like baseball mitts,
so I helped him pick out the
ripe ones.”
And if you’re looking for a
history lesson, the 95-year-old
Cortese has plenty to say, especially
shoppers. The grocer used to
carry lima beans, oyster plants,
and rhubarb, but stopped as
habits changed and people began
looking for prepared foods
— customers shop lighter these
days, says the grocer, who attributes
to smaller families.
“I used to have families of
four or fi ve walk into the store.
Now families are smaller. Most
of the people who used to come
in have either passed away or
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when it comes to the dietary
habits of Kings County
the lighter grocery bags
1464 86th Street (between 14th & 15th Ave.)
718-236-9883
Established 1971
COURIER L 6 IFE, JULY 26-AUG. 1, 2019 B G M
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: The outside of the Golden Gate Fruit Market,
which recently celebrated 80 years in business. Photo by Louise McCarthy
moved away,” says Cortese, a
little melancholy. “I remember
when the block would have
trolleys strolling down the avenue,
and women left their doors
open as they cleaned.”
World War II memorabilia,
stirring memories of the Battle
of the Bulge, where Cortese
served as part of the 551st Field
Artillery Battalion, helping to
stave off the German advance
in what would be Hitler’s fi -
nal offensive on the Western
Front.
The veteran recalls how, before
he joined in the Allied invasion
of Normandy, the army
put him through a two-hour demolitions
course, and he was
taught how to handle mines in
a live mine fi eld.
But the grocer’s life wasn’t
all blood, guts, and mangos.
Cortese meet his wife
through a friend, who thought
enough of him to introduce the
shop keep to his sister. She died
when he was 92 — another reason
he continues to return to
the store.
“I don’t view this as work,
this is just a hobby I enjoy doing,”
he said.
RIPE OLD AGE
Flatbush’s Golden Gate Fruit Market turns 80