Dans Papers - June 8, 2007 - Perhaps We Could Still Get Coffee?

You can't get a buttered roll with a really hot cup of coffee, so good on a snowy morning, in a real estate agency.

And in July, after browsing a crafts fair on the Cutchogue Village Green for an hour, you can't wander into a real estate agency and pay a dollar for a drink. Ice cold.

So imagine my distress hearing Cutchogue Village Market, a landmark deli/cafe on the southwest corner of Main and New Suffolk roads, was to be no more. The employees, the customers, some deli delicacies. A deli eulogy, if you will.

We'll start outside with the awnings. Over the years they were yellow, or black and white stripes, or a deep maroon. Always pretty, always reminiscent of "olden days" even in 2007.

Those olden days? Well, in the 1940s it was Rysko's Market. Then Nolan's, Olsen's, Ireland's - but the market was always there, right on that corner. Michael Rutigliano was the last owner. He and his staff served the North Fork well. For reasons none of my business, the owner of the property, not Michael, decided real estate was the way to go.

Come into the market with me one last time. Sit down at one of ten tables. That one by the window looks good. The one with the checkers game waiting for players. Let's get coffee and look around.

On the walls are pictures past. Cutchogue's Long Island Rail Road station on Depot Lane. Long gone, that station. There's an early photo of Fisherman's Rest Restaurant. It closed just recently. I know the North Fork will miss that, too.

Finished your coffee? Then see this. The menu board features cream of broccoli soup and corned beef. Greenport's Nelly Mendoza, who works here, says fried chicken is a favorite take-out, as well as thin-crust pizza. Nelly's found a job on Shelter Island. Good for you, Nelly. Come back and visit with us.

Over here on the counter. Drop your change in the "Audrey" canister. Audrey's the North Fork dog that was viciously attacked and now fighting for her life in rehab. Medical bills? Generous North Forkers will come through.

Near the counter you can pick up a copy of Dan's Papers. If you want, get a coffee refill and sit down and read. Until a friend comes into the market and you start to gossip. It's always that way. The way it should be, I think.

Or talk to someone you don't know. I love to do that. On this last day I approached a table occupied by Shannon and Gregory Messina. They've lived in Mattituck for a year (their home, a yellow cottage, belonged to Shannon's grandma). Shannon didn't know the market was closing and when I told her she was saddened.

Shannon's happy on the North Fork. Working in New York City on 9/11, she walked over the Brooklyn Bridge trying to reach her Long Island home. Her father met her in Brooklyn.

Shannon's in business for herself now. It's Yellow Cottage Crafts featuring decorative items she hand-paints. All this I learned from a few minutes in the market.

I said my good-byes but before I drove away, I stopped in Cutchogue Fire Department - right next door. Those guys will miss the market. Longtime volunteer Ben Andruski worked at Rysko's when he was a teen. Ben's volunteer pal, Jim Fogarty, recalled that Mr. Rysko was a volunteer fireman and when the siren sounded he ran from the market and began directing traffic on Main Road. So bring on that real estate agency. We wish it well simply because North Forkers are decent people. If these real estate folks are real wise, they'll have available, perhaps just on weekends, coffee, rolls, sliced meats and cheese, potato salad, fruit and cookies. Oh, and dill pickles. Now this would be a real deli estate.

No question about it. You can take the deli out of Cutchogue but you can't keep Cutchogue out of a deli.