Frank & Maria's Italian Market — Local services in Town of Islip

Hey Guys. For starters I just wanted to praise Frank and Maria's as not only a great Italian pork store but also long time authentic Bay Shore staple. I don't show my face often, and actually I order delivery a lot more often than not. My girls family had a huge gathering this Monday and I suggested stopping in so we could load up on a bunch of meats, cheese and pastries for the occasion. I had $700 in my pocket I was ready to blow. I was looking forward to bridging the gap between what they're used to on the north shore, to my amazing experience with your establishment from the south shore. Honestly, if all went as planned I would've 100% talked you guys up and let everyone know where the taste of Italy came from (still will, despite this) Sadly, and unfortunately not the experience I expected Let me tell you why. 2:22 Sunday 2/26/23 I walked into the store with my girl. You can watch the camera footage and see I'm not fabricating this as a lie. I was wearing the black track suit, she was the blonde in the blue sweat shirt. 2:22 I walked in. Noticed Sam who I haven't seen in over a year, and with a smile, she greeted me (we have zero personal relationship but I'll praise her as a valuable asset to your establishment. I let her know that I never actually stepped inside and usually order online and wanted to load up on some goodies. Sam informed me the sandwich station was wrapping up soon and it would be best if we placed an order quick before we looked around. She's been a sweetheart since the day I met her and I believe she is a nice hard working mother who I give a lot of credit to. So me and my girl walk to the sandwich station/cold case and let the pleasant lady behind the station know we were looking for two heros, despite being greeted by her and her male co-worker with dirty looks. It took me a second to realize you were actually closing within the next 35 minutes but upon Sam's instruction didn't think it was a big deal. Which it shouldn't have been. I worked with food and I understand closing procedure and Cleaning up while the stores open however anytime a guest came in, I was obligated to serve them. Upon half way letting your employee know we were looking for sandwiches I was almost basically cut off mid sentence by the woman behind the counter saying "I'm done making sandwiches for the day"....which she then....turned her back before I could respond. I turned to my girl to ask if she still wanted to grab everything we planned on grabbing which at that point she was so turned off by her first visit by your employee she didn't want anything at all. We began to walk out as I saw Sam mobilizing from the counter by the front door, to the sandwich station. At this point I was honestly so done with the two second experience myself and the lack of accommodation that I was done. Competition on Montauk highway is crazy right now, I know many of the bartenders, servers and business owners and can honestly tell you this kind of service will be the down fall of an amazing place if it continues. As we were walking out Sam was at the deli counter telling the pleasant dismissive lady that you guys didn't stop making sandwiches until 3. She other employee told Sam she was done making sandwiches, as Sam continued to offer her help cleaning up afterwards, offered help with the sandwiches and even pulled and ripped a wrapping paper for the sandwiches. As I was at the front door leaving with my girl we were called back to order what we wanted after Sam got in they're ear. At this point I yelled back across the store saying we were good, and walked out, ended up going to "the pizzaria" instead. I'm not writing this review for the general public, or the employees. Writing this review to get threw to the owner, who I hope does not let this behavior continue. There's plenty of people looking for work in this economy and this was absolutely not the warm Italian welcome...

We almost purchased a home in what was once a decayed and depressed Bay Shore in 1988. Wish we had because, like Patchogue, this sea side town is quite beautiful. As was, and still is, Bay Shore is a destination day trip or night venue so similar to Huntington!

OUR destination for the best beef I ever tasted is curated and aged well under the careful and kind eyes of Frank, owner with beloved Maria. ( Their ground beef melts in your mouth!, homemade sausage for which to die. I am not a huge fan of meat.) Carnivores, listen up!

Last holiday season, I was coming down with what turned out to be RSV. Thank G-d that Christina turned around an overnight order to ensure we had a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and almond topped with olive -oil drizzled broccoli for the first night of Chanukah's meal!!! My husband made his GF. latkes, I opened the lids of applesauce and sour cream to top them off...a bottle of Kedem wine and voila! We happily spun our dreidels!

Fast forward to last night. My husband ordered our "Grinch roast beast" for Christmas Eve dinner, picked up the delicious chicken sausage ring, cutlets.I did a supermarket sweep of salt-free mozzarella ball , jam, Baci chocolate, and amaretto cookies for our last night of Chanukah meal 5 minutes to 5 pm closing time. No rush, but we did as lovely Samantha and Giovanna needed to get home to their families. Our Italian infused Chanukah fete was good to go!

I need to stay GF and Giovanna took the time to read the cookies's ingredients aloud to me as I never carry my readers! NO FLOUR, YEAH! Grabbed the magazine ,LIST. on the way out the door with our heavy bag of groceries. WE WERE NOT RUSHED. We cut back our use of Hello Fresh to deliver meals as the omicron virus has waned but still morphing! PICK UP AT Frank and Maria's is best for one pan cooking, fresher, too!

Shop downtown Bay Shore NOW! Check out Willy Nilly's Christmas Shoppe. I rivals Germany's Christmas markets at this time of year. Say hi to Frank and staff ! So warm and welcoming as they greet you with an immediate smile and ask, " What can I get you?"

You will be glad you did stop in. This kind grocer family establishment goes the extra mile to meet all needs of many families all year round, not just Fire Island summer residents! Older, younger people living in the new apartments , latter pushing strollers , as their new homes near completion in beautiful again, restored to its former glory of Gatsby's 1920s , iconic Bay Shore!

SHOP AT FRANK AND MARIA'S ITALIAN GROCER. YOU ARE...

Where’s the meat??? Ok I used to love coming into this little Italy deli and get the best customer service from everyone. Lately since after Covid most of the employees are gone and the new hires don’t interact well with others. Every time I have entered the guys seem like they are a deer in headlights and don’t know what to do. But besides that they used to have the best hot food and made the most amazing sandwiches. Now everything has gone down and the prices are sky rocketing. The few times I went in I have gotten some hot food of chicken franchese and pasta that they charged $16 for a piece of chicken and a scoop of pasta.. Really!! So then the next time I decided to get a sandwich just some ham and salami on a roll with mayo and that was $11 with hardly any meat at all. Seriously where’s the meat? The last time I got lunch I figured I’ll just get some chicken cutlets that shouldn’t be expensive. Well guess what 2 small pieces of chicken cutlets where still $10 and they were so tiny it shouldn’t have been more then $6. Plus the chicken was so hard that I couldn’t even eat it. Sorry but I won’t be returning to this...