Set on a busy corner in Forest Hills at Lefferts Boulevard, the Homestead Deli is somewhat of a neighborhood landmark. To locals, it is nothing less than an iconic food extravaganza.
Ask most anyone in Kew Gardens about the best place for old world favorites such as freshly baked hams or homemade salads and chances are they will utter the name Homestead Gourmet Shop, located at 81-45 Lefferts Blvd. in Kew Gardens.
Over the years, Homestead has quietly built a solid reputation among local residents for “from scratch” specialty and gourmet foods such as strudels, salads and Polish/German fare from Pierogies to Kielbasa.
Although Homestead traces its roots in the neighborhood back some 66 years, the store’s current owner, Teresa Wianecka, bought the store about nine years ago from the original owners.
Wianecka, 56, who first came to the US in 1988 from her native Poland, had worked at Homestead for 15 years before she purchased the business from the original German and Polish owners.
She recalled leaving Poland to both escape communism and start a new life in America.
Early on, Wianecka worked as a housekeeper and a babysitter before finding her place at Homestead.
“I live in Kew Gardens and I really like the area for its many parks and very nice people,” she said.
Explaining that many of the shop’s specialty foods are made from scratch of all natural ingredients, Wianecka said, “People like Homestead for salads, pastries and cold cuts. Everything is fresh, natural and we always feature daily specials.”
Some of the shop’s favorite items, said Wianecka, include freshly-baked cheese, cherry or apple strudels as well as a Polish dish called bigos, a stew of cabbage and meat. Other popular homemade dishes include stuffed cabbage and German potato salad with bacon.
And, Homestead’s reputation for fine foods is abundantly evident on social networks including Yelp and online food networks such as Chowhound.
On Yelp, one poster, Andre P., described Homestead’s offerings as “Yummy food by Polish people. Lots of stuff going on in here, from cases of Polish beer, to stick-your-face-in-it racks of sweets, to all sorts of meaty stuff, to pastries from heaven.”
He added, “This is a place you’d want to stop by on the way if you’re nearby and probably a favorite among locals. Bookmark Homestead and stop by. The building itself is in cute Tudor style.”
Jennifer M. from Kew Gardens said, “This place is so charming. You really feel transported to Eastern Europe right when you enter. Everything I have tried here has been delicious. Items are a bit pricier then other delis but the quality is exceptional so they are excused… Highly recommend the cheese strudel and the roast beef!”
Wianecka, who works six days and nearly 80 hours per a week, said that her customers are varied and run the gamut from many Germans, Poles and Swiss to religious Jews.
“Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Easter are among our busiest seasons,” she points out.
And, while Wianecka takes special pride in Homestead’s Polish specialties such as holiday hams and potato salad made with
Apple is just one variety of strudel sold at the Homestead, and has been touted by a multitude of social media contributors and regular clients as the best anywhere.
from-scratch mayonnaise, the shop has come to be known increasingly for its outstanding, if not award-winning, strudels.
Yelp poster Barbara E. said that Homestead’s strudels were tops in the city.
“On our quest for the best apple strudel in New York City, we were very pleasantly surprised to come across this place,” she wrote recently. “The apples were sliced just the right size to allow for the full flavor of the apples. The crust was light and flaky, in fact, it was pretty perfect. It had a good overall taste.”
The poster went on to praise Homestead’s various strudels, eventually proclaiming the shop’s apple strudel as “the best in the Big Apple.”
By Alan Krawitz
