Barzini's, the Upper West Side grocery store that has stocked shelves on Broadway since 1983, will be evicted from its longtime home next week after falling more than $1 million behind on rent. The store has papered its windows with “Everything Must Go!” signs as its 43-year run in the 3,600-square-foot space between West 90th and 91st Streets comes to an end.
Court records cited by the New York Post show Barzini's owners stopped paying their $56,000 monthly rent in March 2026, after defaults on that obligation first began in February 2025. Joseph Cervini, who represents the landlord, told the paper the eviction will proceed from the Broadway premises next week. A judge has permitted the eviction to move forward despite the store owners' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on June 29, 2026 — the same day they had separately agreed to vacate the property.
That timing isn't a coincidence. Under New York's court system, filing for bankruptcy typically triggers an automatic stay on eviction proceedings, but landlords can still enforce court-approved surrender agreements when a tenant defaults on commitments made after the filing, according to the NYS Unified Court System. Barzini's owners had agreed to vacate by June 29 in exchange for the landlord waiving $1 million in back rent, but they ignored that initial deadline, and an eviction notice was ultimately handed to the store on August 14. Barzini's can legally be evicted from the premises starting August 31, per the same court record cited by the Post.
A Long Slide Toward Financial Trouble
Barzini's has struggled with financial problems for more than a year, and this isn't the first brush with eviction. The store nearly faced eviction last summer for failure to pay rent, with its owners claiming at the time that landlords had failed to correct hazardous conditions at the property. Manager Parviz Abde told the Post that Barzini's never scaled back its 24/7 service even as the financial strain mounted.
The grocery's troubles have run alongside repeated health citations. State inspectors shut Barzini's down in January 2025 over health-code violations, but the store continued operating despite that shutdown, and Hoodline previously reported on Barzini's reopening amid the pending hearing. Inspections at various points found dead and live rats throughout the shop, beetles living in grain, and cheese that was seven years past its expiration date. Because Barzini's operates as a retail grocery rather than a hot-food restaurant, it falls under the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets rather than the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which handles food service establishments, according to NYC311.
Neighbors React to the Closing
Longtime customers are taking the news hard. Miriam Rosen, 68, described the shutdown as heartbreaking, and 54-year-old Anthony Carbone, who has patronized Barzini's since childhood, shared in that sense of loss. Some employees have pushed back on the framing of the closure, telling West Side Rag that the liquidation signage reflects excess inventory rather than a confirmed shutdown — though employees have not confirmed a final day of operation. The 3,600-square-foot space is now listed as available immediately and can be split between up to three tenants.
Why Landlords Have the Upper Hand
The building at 2451 Broadway is owned by 250 West 91st Realty LLC, an investment entity that purchased the property in 2023 for $9.8 million, according to entity records reported by Crain's New York Business. That purchase price helps explain the landlord's rent expectations in a submarket where commercial asking rents along Broadway and Columbus Avenue averaged $321 per square foot in the second quarter of 2026, per Cushman & Wakefield data.
The Upper West Side and Lincoln Square submarket posted a retail storefront vacancy rate of just 7.1% in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest of any Manhattan retail district, according to The Real Deal. That kind of scarcity gives property owners strong incentive to reclaim storefronts from tenants who fall behind, even as the Real Estate Board of New York's First Half 2026 Manhattan Retail Report notes that overall Manhattan asking rents remain roughly 32% below their 10-year peak. Residential corridors like the Upper West Side, the report found, continue to see steady demand from neighborhood-serving retail businesses — a dynamic underscored by real estate firm Terra Developers' recent $28 million purchase of the building housing a Gristedes supermarket at 500 Columbus Avenue.
Part of a Broader Pattern on the Upper West Side
Barzini's exit follows a string of departures among the neighborhood's legacy food businesses. Silver Moon Bakery, a 24-year-old Broadway staple, permanently closed in March 2025 after its landlord sued over roughly $200,000 in alleged unpaid rent — a closure Hoodline covered in a story on that rent dispute. More recently, Good Enough to Eat announced it would serve its final meal at 520 Columbus Avenue on August 30, 2026, ending a 45-year run amid lease renewal impasses, as Hoodline reported in coverage of the restaurant's closure.
Even the retail block Barzini's sits on has seen enforcement trouble. In July 2026, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shut down Tal Bagels directly across the street at 2446 Broadway after inspectors cited the shop for 157 health violation points, including rodent evidence, according to West Side Rag. For now, Barzini's fate is sealed for next week, even as its final day of operation remains unconfirmed.
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