-By James Mellgren

New York City is a food lover's Mecca. Not only are there hundreds of restaurants that span global cuisine, there are specialty shops for just about anything related to food, wine and cooking. Whether you are looking for hard-to-find products or simply seeking new merchandising ideas, take advantage of being in the Big Apple this month by making the rounds of New York's finest -- food shops that is. The sampling below, a few of my all-time favorites, is but the tip of the iceberg where NYC food shops are concerned. We'll continue to add to this list between now and next summer, and we invite you to tell us about your own favorite NYC shops. For information about more great food markets within the five boroughs that make up New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island), check out "Gourmet Shops of New York" (Rizzoli) by Susan Meisel & Nathalie Sann. Also, if you have some favorite New York hot spots, let us know and we'll add them to the story! E-mail me at Mellgren56@gmail.com

UPTOWN
Fairway Market
Broadway at 74th Street (also stores in Harlem, Red Hook in Brooklyn, and on Long Island)
The stretch of Broadway from 74th Street to 81st Street could constitute a food tour all by itself, but we'll focus on just two stores; and we'll begin with what may be the best of them all, Fairway Market on Broadway at 74th Street, whose signature line, "Like no other market," is an understatement. The owners, Howard Glickberg, David Sneddon and Harold Seybert, along with young scion Daniel Glickberg (representing the fourth generation of Glickbergs to own Fairway), have assembled a brilliant team of buyers and managers that have made Fairway the bold, exciting store that it is, from food impresario Steven Jenkins to chef Mitchel London and buyers like Brian Riesenburger (specialty grocery) and Avenelle Rivera (olives, dried fruits and nuts). Fairway imports a huge amount of the products they sell so don't expect the same old lineup of brands on their shelves. Instead, they have an international array of specialty and traditional foods at prices that just about anyone else would find hard to beat. One can learn a lot about retailing by touring Fairway, including how to do great signage, merchandising that sells and a pricing structure that promotes volume sales. Perusing the shelves at Fairway, you will discover how Jenkins manages to keep them in the pages of The New York Times each week with their unique selection of goods. www.fairwaymarket.com

Zabar's
2245 Broadway (between 80th & 81st Streets)
Undoubtedly the most famous deli in the world, Zabar's should be a must-stop whenever you visit New York because, in a sense, Zabar's is New York. Founded in 1934, Zabar's is justly famous for, among other things, their incredible selection of smoked fish and cured meats, an international array of breads, and coffee that they select, roast and grind themselves, as well as cheese, olive oils, and so on. Upstairs on the second floor is the housewares department full of every conceivable electric or nonelectric kitchen tool, pots and pans, molds, knives and the rest. Zabar's is almost always as crowded as Disneyland, and just as entertaining. www.zabars.com

The Other Zabar:
E.A.T., 1064 Madison Ave. (between 80th & 81st Streets)
The Vinegar Factory, 431 E. 91 St. (between 1st St. & York)
Eli's Manhattan, 1411 3rd Ave. at 80th St.
If you head due east from Zabar's on the Upper West Side to Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side, you will find "Eli's Across Town," better known as E.A.T. (I don't know for sure that is what it stands for but if the shoe fits … ). Realizing he would be a cog in the big wheel of his family's business on Broadway, Eli Zabar left to start his own business on Madison Avenue. E.A.T. is really a restaurant but it has a vast takeout counter just inside the main entrance along with an impressive display of Eli's magnificent breads that at one time were baked in the basement, but are now, I believe, all made at Eli's Breads on 91st Street, near his magnum opus market, The Vinegar Factory, housed in what was New York's last factory for producing mustards and vinegar. The Vinegar Factory is its own little world. The quality of everything here is not only superb, but also likely made on premises or in some way enhanced by the skilled people who work there. Cheese, deli, exceptional prepared foods. The heat from bread ovens next door at Eli's Bread is funneled up and into the rooftop garden atop The Vinegar Factory, where they produce beautiful tomatoes, greens and herbs. Eli's Manhattan is a scaled-down version of his Vinegar Factory, next door to which are two more parts of Eli's empire, T.A.S.T.E. Restaurant & Wine Bar and W.I.N.E. & Spirits Shop. www.elizabar.com or www.elisbread.com

DOWNTOWN
Dean & DeLuca
560 Broadway at Prince Street
When Joel Dean and Giorgio DeLuca opened their eponymous store in Soho in 1977, they inadvertently set off a culinary revolution in America, the effects of which are still felt today as shops across the country have adopted (knowingly or not) the Spartan, clean white and steel look that was designed (by partner Jack Ceglic) to allow the food to be the star and decoration. In 1988, they moved two blocks from their original location on Prince Street to a grand emporium on Broadway, where they were able to add fresh meat and seafood counters, and offer a vast array of prepared foods. They now have several stores across the country, all the way to St. Helena in the Napa Valley, but the New York store is something to see, and seen it is as tour buses routinely pull up to allow visitors a quick tour of one of the most famous and influential food stores of our time. www.deananddeluca.com

Murray's Cheese
254 Bleecker St.
There are many good cheese shops in New York, almost rivaling Paris in that regard, but the best of the best, and indeed perhaps the best in the country, is Murray's Cheese in the heart of Greenwich Village. Owner Rob Kaufelt moved his store across the street a few years ago to a larger space that not only allows them sufficient room for all their wares, but also room for a cheese school on the second floor. The new store manages to retain the charm of the former space but with an expanded cheese cellar, where specialty cheeses from more than a dozen countries are coddled and nurtured to the peak of perfection before they are sent upstairs to the shop, delivered to any one of several restaurants that rely on Murray's for their cheese plates, or shipped to consumers around the country. Like Yankee Doodle Dandy, Kaufelt was the first to take a selection of artisanal American cheeses to the prestigious Slow Food Cheese event in Bra, Italy, where experts from around Europe were dazzled and forced to sit up and take notice of American cheeses. It was the cheese equivalent of the famous wine judging in Paris in the 1970s, when a California Cabernet won in a blind tasting over illustrious Bordeaux wines. Take your notebooks when you go to Murray's because the merchandising is stupendous and the cheeses are superb, and you will learn what a great cheese shop should look like. Murray's also has a shop in the Grand Central Market at Grand Central Station. www.murrayscheese.com

Di Palo's Dairy
200 Grand St.
No list of my favorites would be complete without this venerable Italian cheese shop and deli in Little Italy. Di Palo's is presided over by third-generation (or is it fourth?) owner Lou Di Palo, a virtual walking encyclopedia of Italian foods. Lou travels regularly to visit suppliers in Italy and to seek out new ones. He knows every morsel of food in his shop as if he made it personally (and he probably could), and knows exactly when a cheese or cured meat is ready to be sold. At Di Palo's, samples are offered generously and, in fact, nothing will be sold to you without you trying it first. This is not a hardship as the cheeses, meats, olive oils and such will undoubtedly be the best you have ever had. To me, this shop is the quintessential Little Italy shop, rising high above almost everything else in the neighborhood, or the rest of the city for that matter. There would be something anachronistic about a Web site at Di Palo's and, consequently, they don't have one. Just go there, pay the price of admission (not really) by buying a wedge of cheese to fortify you on your walk and savor a true slice of old New York.

Brooklyn
Blue Apron Foods
814 Union St.
Take a quick, easy and safe subway ride to Park Slope, Brooklyn, and experience a true European-style charcuterie and see what heights can be attained in a very small space. Owned and operated by two Dean & DeLuca alumni, Ted Matern and Alan Palmer, Blue Apron Foods is a jewel box of a store that will amaze you with the breadth of its assortment. Both the cheese and cured meat departments are thoughtfully selected, expertly cared for and beautifully presented. They know New York's finest producers of fine foods and offer a stellar selection of breads from Sullivan Street Bakery, chocolates by fellow Brooklyn-ite Jacques Torres, and a host of other foods that vary seasonally and according to availability. The neighborhood is as charming as any in the city, making it well worth the ride to the land of Brooklyn for an afternoon. They have no Web site at present (like Di Palo's, it is somehow out of place) so call them for directions at 718-230-3180.

HOUSEWARES
Broadway Panhandler
65 East 8th St. (between Broadway & University Avenue)
Broadway Panhandler is perhaps the premier kitchenware shop in New York, and one of the oldest. They began in 1976 on Broadway in Soho and have moved a couple of times since, finally landing in their current location near NYU in the Village. Owner Norman Kornbleuth grew up in his family's cookware store on the Bowery and drifted back into the business after college. The store carries many of the best-loved brands in cookware, including All-Clad, Le Creuset, Wüsthof and much more, but what sets them apart is their experienced and knowledgeable sales staff, superior customer service, special events and services like their in-store knife-sharpening service. Prompted by James Beard and others in the industry, Kornbleuth and his staff were among the first to merchandise professional-grade cookware, bakeware and tools to the general public. They have an extensive Web site that relates news about events in the store as well as information about their huge selection of cookware, bakeware, tabletop, accessories for outdoor cooking and dining, cookbooks, and so on. Broadway Panhandler is a must-see shop for any cookware purveyors that will be coming to the show this summer. www.broadwaypanhandler.com