STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The gray skies and rain-soaked conditions outside V&J Soriano Pork Store perhaps reflected the glum mood inside the longtime Bay Terrace salumeria on Sunday, as staff of the longtime family-owned business worked their final shifts.
The Noto family alerted vendors mid-week of this weekend’s closure. Word spread and customers came over the weekend to bid a final good-bye, scoop up balls of fresh mozzarella and the store’s own sausage links. They picked store shelves almost clean by Sunday morning, the usual time crew members start frying up hundreds of meatballs.
The famous meatballs at the center of “Meatball Mania” (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)
That routine proceeded in these final hours.
John Noto remembers when that tradition began about a decade ago. Looking to perk up the sales at the time, he instilled “Meatball Mania” each week. The schtick caught on and a whole counter became dedicated to the cooking cause.
Patrons scooped up product on the store’s final days. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)
In 2011, a crew at the former 92.3 NOW radio station visited the shop to sample its meatballs and honor the staff for being named the best sandwich maker in the borough.
“I’d say all of New York. It’s the best in New York,” said on-air personality Guy on the Couch.
A ONCE-THRIVING OPERATION
The Notos purchased Soriano’s Pork Store at 150 Greaves Lane in 2006. It was originally called “Soriano’s,” but the family added V&J in honor of their children who eventually worked in the business. In 2018, the Notos opened Noto’s Casa Cucina, a sit-down restaurant immediately next door to the deli in the former space of Jimmy Max’s South Shore venture, Emilio’s and Bliss. (The space is now Do Eat restaurant with Eastern European food.)
John Noto said, “V&J Soriano’s brought me so much joy. It was never a job, it was a passion. That’s the honest truth. And the customers brought me such happiness and they made…
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