Did She Say “Francophone Picklettes”?

She did, that’s what Betsy Andrews said in her story about two Manhattan shops preparing “carefully made sandwiches” described variously as “baroque combos”, “magnificently filling”, “tiny but mighty, with worldly panache”, and “the sandwich equivalent of cargo ships.”

Within Six Blocks, Worlds Apart

By BETSY ANDREWS
Published: March 18, 2009

NANCY AND AZIZ LAMAZOU hail from Lebanon and Tunisia. During Mr. Lamazou’s years as a diplomat, they ate their way across the globe. They’re purveyors of fine European packaged goods. They cave continental cheeses beneath a New York City sidewalk. They sell carefully made sandwiches.

Nicky Defonte, born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is the kind of guy who says “New York” and means Manhattan, as in: “Brooklyn is a great spot, don’t get me wrong, but New York is where you get the recognition. And I always wanted to come to New York.” He buys his bread from “Joe in Coney Island.” He, too, sells carefully made sandwiches.

Their shops, Lamazou 370 Third Avenue (27th Street), (212) 532-2009, lamazoucheese.com, and Defonte’s of Brooklyn 261 Third Avenue (21st Street), (212) 614-1500, defontesofbrooklyn.com, are six blocks from each other, but they’re worlds apart.

Read on.

Thank for the tip,When-I-Grow-Up-I-Wanna-Be-You, Ellen.