Featured in a NY Post article about New Yorkers who’ve been at their jobs for 40 or more years is Frank D’Amico, who started working at his father’s coffee shop, D’Amico Foods, on Court Street 59 years ago. Frank, 82, has passed the store down to his son, Frank Jr., but still works a few days at the shop.
It’s hard to quantify just how much the neighborhood and the world around D’Amico Foods have changed in the 61 years since, but some things haven’t. Coffee beans are still roasted daily, and Emanuele’s son Frank still straps on an apron, 59 years after he started working in his father’s shop.
The younger D’Amico, 82, started his professional life as a draftsman. Born and raised in Carroll Gardens (long before realtors coined that name), he’d enlisted at 17 and spent the last two years of World War II on a Navy ship in the Pacific.
This place is quintessential Brooklyn. I bring family and friends in here for a sandwich and coffee every time they visit- which has resulted in requests for coffee deliveries when I go visit them in NH. I’d gladly smuggle this stuff across state lines- everyone needs the D’Amico experience in their lives
Redhook blend is awesome. this is a fantastic brooklyn institution.
By ALL means, please do visit/patronize a fantastic mom/pop shop that not only adds quite a bit of local flavor (if you’ve seen the coffee beans offered) but one that’s long-supported local community groups & organizations — like the Brooklyn Youth Association and Carroll Park, bringing a tree-lighting on Dec. 4th, I believe (details are on their store window, right now).