Murray's Sturgeon Shop is an

appetizing store An appetizing store, typically in reference to Jewish cuisine in New York City, particularly Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, is a store that sells "food that generally goes with bagels", although appetizings can also be served with a variety of breads. ...

and neighborhood fixture in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

. It is located on Broadway between

89th Street 89th Street is a one-way street running westbound from the East River to Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street is interrupted by Central Park. It runs through the Upper West Side, ...

and 90th Street. The shop was founded by Murray Bernstein in 1945. A few years later, his brother, Sam, became a co-owner. The Bernsteins were born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and immigrated to New York in the 1930s to escape anti-semitism. The store specializes in smoked fish, especially

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

, and caviar. In 1964, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described it as "one of the busiest places on Broadway" and praised its products as "first quality". The store ships their fish all over the world, and in 1980 Murray's appetizers were being sold at the Neiman Marcus Epicure Shop in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

. Show business personalities Sammy Cahn and

Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on ...

were regulars at the shop. In 1974, the shop was sold to restaurateur Artie Cutler. Artie took in a partner, Harold "Heshy" Berliner, in 1979. They sold the business to Ira Goller in 1990. Sam Bernstein died in 1977 and Murray Bernstein died in 2000.

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* 1945 establishments in New York City Appetizing stores Jewish delicatessens in the United States Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Polish-Jewish culture in New York City Restaurants established in 1945 Restaurants in Manhattan Upper West Side Broadway (Manhattan) Ashkenazi Jewish restaurants {{Jewish-cuisine-stub

See also

References

External links