Back in my Brooklyn NYC of the 50s and 60s we used to call the neighborhood luncheonette ‘The Candy Store’. In my Ave U neighborhood we had at least one such store every few short blocks. The one I will focus on was ‘ Moe’s Luncheonette’ on Ave U between East 24th St and Bedford Ave. It was run by the Miller family : Moe Miller, his wife Mary and his two sons Marty and Michael (who was a few years older than me). Moe ran the place and was always behind the counter from it seems 6AM to midnight.
You walked into the place and on your left there was the counter with spinning bar seats as I called them. At that spot you could order anything from an Egg Cream (large glass with a dab of Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup and a dab of milk drowned with seltzer and stirred quickly to give the appearance of foamy egg white- thus the ‘Egg Cream’) or a Lime Rickey (a large glass again with a ‘smear’ of Fox’s U-Bet cherry syrup drowned with seltzer and topped with a nice, large piece of a fresh lime), or the ever popular ‘Malted’ (a scoop of ice cream of choice, a touch of milk, lots of syrup and a scoop of malt powder, whipped together in a Hamilton Beach Malted Milk Blender). Moe had a great menu that included hamburgers, diner style egg dishes, tuna and egg salad sandwiches, turkey clubs, all of these made from scratch along with potato salad, cucumber salad and coleslaw.Behind the long counter there were booths for those who liked to eat a bit more privately.
What gave the place the ‘Candy Store’ ambiance was the glass enclosed candy space right under the cash register, where one could buy just about anything like the PEZ dispensers, Mars bars, O’Henry bars, Snickers, Milky Way bars, the ever popular Chunkie bars and whatever. Opposite that area was the giant newspaper and magazine rack, filled with all kinds of periodicals… and a slew of NYC newspapers like the Daily News, NY Post, NY Mirror, NY Times, Herald Tribune, Journal American, World Telegram and Sun and many others. Moe even had an area offering bestselling books that someone could actually rent. I think it was anywhere from 10 cents a day to 25 cents a day, I forget.
Moe’s did a tremendous lunch business and sold lots of pieces of pie ala mode in the evenings. The store had tremendous street traffic all day and night. What made the place real New York was late at night, before closing. You could go into Moe’s and get yourself involved in debates during the baseball, football and basketball seasons. Guys who really followed the local teams ( Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants, Knicks and St Johns) and bet with their money and their mouths were probably more knowledgeable than the pundits on TV, radio or the newspapers. Didn’t matter if a guy was a truck driver, waiter or big shot businessman, they carried this ‘Sports sophistication’ with them… and it helped that they would wager on the games. The real zinger was around 10 or 11 O’clock when the usual same guys were hanging around the store. The Daily News truck would pull up with the ‘Night Owl’ edition of tomorrow’s paper. As soon as Moe cut the metal cord guys would grab a paper and go to the sports pages. The ‘Daily Number’ was the last three digits of the local thoroughbred racetrack’s pari-mutuel totals.
As with most great things of the past, the present offers very little in exchange. Isn’t that so sad for this baby boomer and his generation?
PA Farruggio
December, 2025