Alleva Dairy
“Alleva is Little Italy at its best and I hope it stays around for a very long time.”
“The speck, sopressata, pepperoni (be sure to grab a few sticks-great quality), fresh mozzarella are favorites.”
“I think the mozzarella cheese is best ingested when combined with the tasty prosciutto.”
Alleva Dairy
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range Moderate
8 reviews
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We just stopped in to look around as we were in a hurry. But this place smelled great! I only really payed attention to the blue cheeses and they seemed to have quite a selection. All of them I had tried before though. I would definitely go back when I had more time to actually sample a few of the cheeses and get some to take and have with a beer somewhere.
Alleva Dairy – the oldest cheese shop in America – established in 1892.
Today we celebrate anniversaries for everything. Happy 1 year anniversary to our brewery – patio party! But think about this for a second, 1892. I can't even wrap my head around what that means. What they have seen, who they have served cheese to, what they have gone through as a business.
We were searching for cannoli's while in New York and there were so many to choose from. They are everywhere! But we just so happened to just stumble upon this humble little case in the middle of little Italy and thought – this is where we have to get one! And later we looked on Yelp to see that this was in fact from the oldest cheese shop in America – no wonder, they know what they are doing!
This cannoli haunts me day in and day out. It was the best cannoli I have ever had and the thought of it makes me melt and cringe at the same time. Melt into memories thinking about how delicious it was, and cringe knowing that I cannot have it.
This place deserves some serious props and whether you are a local or a passerby – Alleva Dairy should be on your list.
My boyfriend and I found ourselves here after a trip to DiPalo's down the street had us reeling at prices. We were looking for ingredients to make a muffaleta shooter style sandwich and they had all the meats and cheeses we needed. They even had the dried porcini mushrooms we needed for another recipe at the cheapest prices we had seen after searching several other stores throughout various neighborhoods in Manhattan.
The people who helped us were incredibly nice, taking us around the store and showing us all of their selection. With the deli meats and cheeses, the man slicing for us gave us a generous sample of each meat & cheese and checked to make sure we were really satisfied before cutting up our order. All in all, this fulfills all my fantasies of a cute neighborhood deli where the people working really try their best to make sure you're happy with your purchase.
Loved this place. We were just wandering around Little Italy and this spot looked interesting to me and I'm happy I followed my instinct. Food was delicious, we grabbed some spicy dried Italian sausage too and I have no doubt that it'll be fantastic.
The mozzarella sticks were really good if you're looking for a quick snack. Friendly folks too.
I love Who's the Boss (Alleva, partly owned by Tony Danza, is the kinda place where you might find Mrs. Rossini shopping for rice balls and gabagool). I have had some delicious food from Alleva over the years. That said, when you post store hours on your website/online saying the store closes at 7 PM and then are closed at 6:45…well, this is very frustrating and shows little respect for your customer's time. I rushed to get there on 6/7/16…only to find the gate down and shop closed. Disappointing.
It pains me to give a negative review because I know this place is historic in the area and honestly the sandwich I had there was delicious. Unfortunately I feel I have no choice because of the awful treatment I received when I was in there. I'm not sure if they had something against me because they thought I was a tourist (though I lived in the area), or maybe had something against the Chinatown crowd (though I'm Korean), or were just in a bad mood – I'm not in a position to hypothesize. But the guy behind the counter was so mean and rude to me that my husband wanted to storm out. Sadly, my sandwich craving was too strong so I stuck it out.
As soon as I walked in, he gave me attitude, pretty much yelling at me. I can handle gruff New Yorkers just fine, but this guy had it out for me. When I asked if I could have a hot deli item listed on the menu (I think maybe it was a meatball or something), he huffed and puffed and said there's no way they had anything hot left that late in the day. Fine, so I went with a cold deli sandwich and he tore into me again: "WHAT KIND OF SANDWICH? WHAT KIND OF CHEESE?? YOU WANT AMERICAN? COME ON SPEAK THE HELL UP!" The insult of assuming I wanted American cheese in an authentic Italian cheese shop didn't escape me.
I felt almost guilty as I enjoyed my huge turkey and cheese sandwich that I sacrificed my pride and high standard of customer service just because I love cheese and sandwiches that much. I vowed to only go to DiPalo's from now on, where the cheese is awesome AND they're super nice.
I had their cheesecake in a cone and I loved it!
So glad we stumbled across this random 'best kept secret'.
Established in 1892. This shop is dedicated to cheeses, meats and sandwiches/subs.
We decided on the Italian sub, we added mozzarella and balsamic vinaigrette. I have never had balsamic Vincente on my subs but now I can't imagine it any other way. This sub was absolutely delicious. Full of scrumptious flavor. Took a second for the sun to be made, the gentleman sliced the meat and cheese fresh to order, I don't care because it was well worth the wait. The meat was savory and salty, we were given a slice of prosciutto prior to our order being complete. Any ingredient that tastes delicious on its own tastes even better on a sub and this was no exception.
The gentleman behind the counter told us of several restaurants that we needed to try before going home. He also informed us that Lombartis pizza was one of the better/best pizza places in the area and that this shop delivers 300 lbs of mozzarella to this place daily!
Very happy with our choosing and you can tell the employees love working here and have a passion for what they do!