appetizing n chiefly NYC area; also sFL and other urban areas with concentrations of Jewish population Cf appetizer n
1 as a mass noun: = appetizer n 1.
1962 Ober Bungalow Nine 151 seNY, Sandra served another tray. “Appetizing!” Bob Lehrer cried. “With sturgeon!” They sat around attacking assorted smoked and baked white fish, salmon, carp, and sturgeon and doing away with bagels, boolkies and bialis. There was a variety of cheeses, as well. 1972 Ft. Lauderdale News (FL) 30 Nov 17/1, [Advt:] Bagel World . . “The Real McCoy”—New York Bagels & Appetizing. 1986 NY Daily News (NY) 8 June mag sec 18/4, What do Jewish guys do on Sunday? They let the wife sleep and they go out for bagels and appetizing. So I’d go out for lox. 2013 Davis Soundtrack 2 Brooklyn NY (as of 1940s), On Sunday mornings we would have bagels and “appetizing,” a Jewish term that essentially means the food you eat with bagels, like lox or sturgeon.
2 attrib in var combs:
a appetizing store, also abbr appetizing, appy. Cf appetizer n 2a
1914 NY Times (NY) 7 Apr 18/3, Recorded Leases. Manhattan. . . Lenox Av. 154, north front store and basement: Moritz Gidion to Joseph Bushel . . ; attorney, Lenox Appetizing Store. 1921 Buffalo Jewish Rev. (NY) 30 Sept 61/3, [Advt:] I. Ullman . . “Appetizing Store” and Fancy כשר Delicatessens. We also carry a full line of Dairy Products, Home-Made Butter, Cheese and Cream. 1925 Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY) 16 June sec A 5/1, Business Opportunities. . . Appetizing Store, Business section of Sutter av; long established. 1929 Los Angeles Times (CA) 29 Oct sec 2 24/2, I. Kipniss, former owner of I. Kipniss Appetizing Store . . will not be responsible for debts contracted by above store after this date. 1935 Brooklyn Citizen (NY) 14 Jan 17/3, Just ask your appetizing store dealer about the Supreme products. All one has to do in the trade is to mention the name of Manny Weinstock and it is an assurance that the quality of smoked fish sold over the counter is tasty, palatable and of first rate quality. 1947 Miami Herald (FL) 22 Oct sec C 8/7, [Advt:] Kosher Delicatessen, grocery, dairy and appetizing store. 5-year lease. 1957 Hartford Courant (CT) 24 Oct 34/6, [Advt:] Grand Opening of Goldstein’s Delicatessen and Appetizing Store. 1968 NY Mag. 22 July 35/1, “Go to the appetizing and get halfa quarter belly.” For those of Jewish background, this Saturday night injunction has a familiar ring. Ibid 35/2, The basic stock in the appetizing stores (sometimes called appetizers) consists of an impressive array of ready-to-eat pickled, smoked and salted fish, fish and vegetable salads, sour pickles, tomatoes, peppers, sauerkraut, a variety of breads and rolls, dried fruits, nuts and candies. All these wares are generally displayed and dispensed before a multi-colored background wall of canned specialty foods. 1994 NY Daily News (NY) 1 July 58/3, A Bagel and Lox Breakfast is as New Yorky as you can get. Have one at Barney Greengrass . . , an old-time Jewish “appetizing store,” what those in the know still call a retailer of smoked and pickled fish and their accompaniments. 2009 Jewish Herald Voice (Houston TX) 19 Feb (Internet) Bronx NY, If you wanted cured or pickled meat, you went to a delicatessen. If you wanted dairy or smoked fish, you went to an appetizing store. . . In New York, where appys were in every neighborhood, they are now close to extinction. 2015 Boston Sun. Globe (MA) 18 Oct sec M 7/4 NY, Something of a forgotten subcategory to the deli, is the “appetizing” store, best described as an eatery specializing in the foods that accompany bagels. Feldman’s reimagines this vestige of New York’s Lower East Side along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.
b appetizing man. Cf appetizer n 2c
1947 Newsday (Suffolk ed.) (Hempstead NY) [1 May] 40/5, [Advt:] Appetizing man, experienced smoked fish, salads, Kosher delicatessen. Good future and salary for right man. 1949 Miami Herald (FL) 11 Oct sec B 11/4, [Advt:] Good Opportunity for delicatessen and appetizing man, in prime meat market. 1971 Herald Statesman (Yonkers NY) 10 Feb 40/4, [Advt:] If you ate the kind of lox and bagels our appetizing man sells every day at Waldbaum’s, you’d smile too.
c appetizing department, appetizing counter, also abbr appy counter. Cf appetizer n 2b
1949 Brooklyn Eagle (NY) 30 July 10/9, [Advt:] Grocery, must be sold this week . . Frigidaire fixtures with 10-ft. Frigidaire appetizing counter. 1957 Scranton Times (PA) 23 July 14, [Advt:] Get Acquainted With All the Shopping Conveniences in our Superb Moosic St. Store! For Example: . . A real N.Y. Style appetizing Counter! 1966 Bridgeport Telegram (CT) 12 May 49/6, [Advt:] Food Fair Supermarkets. . . Discount Appetizing Dept. Chicken roll . . Potato Salad . . Hard Salami .. Peppered Ham . . Ham Capicolla. 1995 NY Times (NY) 30 Aug sec C 2/5, From that day forward I’ve been slightly intimidated when taking my ticket at the appy counter.
d appetizing business, also abbr appetizing.
1951 Brooklyn Eagle (NY) 2 Aug 24/1, [Advt:] Space in Fish Market for rent, excellent for appetizing business. 1981 Record (Hackensack NJ) 19 Apr sec E 1/1, In two weeks, Morris Petak will mark his 60th anniversary in the appetizing business. Not an appetizing business; the appetizing business—as in the lox-cream-cheese-chopped-herring-smoked-whitefish-sour-pickles appetizing business. The kind whose stores are available only in New York and some of its more enlightened suburbs. 2004 DARE File NYC, My grandfather sold fruits; my late uncle worked in appetizing at Food Fair.