When I walked through the door of European Foods, a combination grocery store and restaurant on Aurora near 135th Street, on a recent afternoon, nothing happened. I stood there for about a minute, looking into the dark dining room and wondering if I was in the right place and whether, in fact, European Foods was actually open. (I was and it was.)
After a few moments, owner Gregory Gincherman emerged from behind a set of shelves stocked with Georgian wine and Polish and Latvian beers, his eyes peeking over the top of his glasses. Standing in front of the refrigerated cases holding meat products like smoked veal tongue and cured back fat (which was translated from Russian as “Superpork”), Gregory looked at me and asked warmly and simply, “You are hungry?”…
