The cock-a-doodle-doo new Church Avenue Poultry Market at 13 Popham Road in Scarsdale is a direct link to the Church Ave. Poultry Company Inc. founded in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in 1895.
Times change, and not just for people. The chickens are no longer sold both “live and dressed.” Today, the birds are infused with sage and curry by a gourmet chef. But one thing owner Linda Cooperman vouches for, having grown up in the fresh chicken business, is the taste of her all-natural chicken (and duck and turkey). It is the same, she says, as the poultry she grew up with. “We buy only the freshest, free-range, humanely raised poultry,” she said. “There”™s no concern with hormones or antibiotics.” She called most chicken sold today “tasteless.”
Cooperman is granddaughter to Abraham Brookstein who started that long-ago poultry market at 16 or 17 years old ”“ “a boy by our standards” ”“ at the corner of 13th Avenue and 39th Street in Brooklyn.
In 1940, Brookstein wrote: “Our name as the oldest and most reliable poultry market in Brooklyn is your guarantee of satisfaction.”
Cooperman”™s father, Nathan Brookstein, and her uncle, Manuel Brookstein, took over the store and ran it until 1971. “That market supported a lot of families over the years,” Cooperman said.
Cooperman eventually married Jerry Cooperman, now a retired chief information officer for several companies. Together, they have re-established the Brookstein family poultry connection after a 37-year hiatus. “He”™s my biggest supporter,” Linda Cooperman said of her husband, who was not in the store the day she spoke. “He”™s my best friend. And he helps filling in.”
The store opened three weeks ago and Cooperman says business is “on target.”
She will soon launch “Health Matters,” which she identifies as “a work in progress for the last eight years.” Health Matters is billed as a six-week program to teach a healthy lifestyle and includes cooking and shopping seminars and 24-hour access to a nutritionist via the Internet. The market also plans cooking classes and catering.
Located in the shadow of the Scarsdale Metro-North train station, Cooperman says the store is designed to benefit “a commuter community. We want to make good food they could take home to their families.”
Cooperman says of restarting the store: “Sometimes you have a passion and it just tugs at you. Giving honor and credit to those who came before us is important to us.” To get that passion up and running, Cooperman begins her days at 4:30 a.m. and finishes working at 9 p.m., “because we”™re just starting and getting into the rhythm of staffing.”
Cooperman has hired six employees to help, including executive chef Rose Walker and sous chef Suzanne Perry, both of whom are graduates of the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan.
Says Walker: “I like to cook in smaller quantities ”“ it stays fresh. I like to get produce that still has soil on it.” And when she cooks, “We make everything from scratch. I infuse flavor in every single aspect of the preparation of an item. It”™s simple in preparation, but not simple in flavor.”
The menu features soups, salads, ciabatta sandwiches and side orders. “A lot of places have these foods,” Cooperman said. “But they don”™t taste the same.”
The Web site is www.churchavenuepoultry.com.
