Ziolo's European (Polish) Deli / Wozniak Meat Products

We see a one-story storefront built in 1963 by the New Haven Redevelopment Agency. A brick masonry box with exterior walls of cinder block and concrete, the unassuming facade is built on land cleared by urban renewal and construction of Interstate-91. Developed with ample parking space to cater to a new, suburban, regional shopper, the storefront is a prime example of the automobile-centric streetscape that reshaped Grand Avenue in the mid-20th century. For over fifty years it has been occupied by a Polish deli that serves as a focal point for Polish culture in the Greater New Haven region.

Previously, 835-41 was home to Dale Furniture Company, whose corporate identity under the leadership of James W. Morell, Pasquale Salerno and Theresa G. Salerno, dissolved in 1949. Final ownership record in the Clark and Hall Papers are that of a Jeanne (Married) Noon and Ralph R. Defonce, however neither their professions or site usage are specified. 835-41 Grand Avenue seems to have belonged to a cluster of furniture store and warehouse ventures.

The building has also remained a Polish food store since its beginnings as 835 in 1964 when Stanley Wozniak acquired the property. Upon his recent death on March 19, 2011, the building is now owned by his wife, Ryta Wozniak, however, the store has had new tenants since 2006–Grazyna (Grace) Ziolo continues the Polish deli business, as well as the Wozniak family tradition. Ziolo owns rights to Wozniak various recipes for perogi and horse radish sauce handmade in back of the store.

Despite the relative stability of the building’s commercial history as a family-run Polish deli, the Wozniak family business participated in the larger fabric of an evolving Polish community in New Haven, as well as a series of changing storefronts and New Haven’s changing urban landscape. Stanley Wozniak moved to 835 Grand Avenue from his previous location–603 East Street. His change of address is an example of the reshuffling of businesses as a result of I-91 development. His family’s business history reaches back, however, to his aunt, Rose Wozniak who arrived in the States in 1917 and settled in New Haven with her brother, Joseph. Shortly thereafter, she and her brother opened their first Polish deli on Congress Avenue which closed during the Depression because customers did not pay up. John, Joseph Wozniak’s son and also Stanley’s brother, ran a pharmacy on State and Humphrey not far from where the family lived on State and East Streets. Rose played an active role at Stanley’s store, doing most of the cooking for hot meals sold at the 835 store address.

835 Grand Avenue is therefore a document of Polish ethnographic history in New Haven–its commercial health correlated to that of New Haven’s Polish community. The construction of I-91which led to the relocation of Stanley Wozniak’s East Street store to Grand Avenue, actually tore threw a large Polish residential community–the effects of which are felt strongly today. Most of the Polish community has moved to the suburbs. A parking lot across the street from Saint Stanislaus Church on State Street services those driving to New Haven for Polish Catholic mass. As a result, the Polish deli at 835 Grand Avenue caters to local and commuter Polish communities–it is a center of both native food products and news–an important gathering spot for the community, for example, to grieve the death of Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski in 2010. Despite its strong hold, the building itself points perhaps to a Polish community in transition or decline. The current store manager, Grace Ziolo continues to pay homage to the long history of Wozniak Meat Markets by keeping the Wozniak store sign, however her own history is marked by temporary banner although she has been in business 7 years. The deli has also expanded its product range to include other Eastern European traditions.

835 Grand Avenue is set on a commercial avenue with many businesses equipped with parking lots. Within walking distance of downtown, the property is embedded in an urban renewal-era streetscape. Its neighboring  parking lot is one of many interval parking spaces between clusters of buildings characteristic of the re-scaping of Grand Avenue informed by the influx of car culture due to or rather, reinforced by interstate development.

The building is a brick masonry box with exterior walls built of cinder block and concrete. The facade is composed of three unadorned columns with setback windows, and a glass-panel door offset left from the center. Four rectangular expanses–a pattern of window-door and two more windows–are set back from the general facade line. An arcade of narrow concrete slab columns underscore and extend forward the vertical partitions denoting windows and doors. No alterations have been made since its construction in 1963, designating 835-41 Grand Avenue a prime example of quick, inexpensive commercial architecture of the mid-20th century.

Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.

——. White Brothers & Clark, Hall & Peck Records. Group 1820, Series 2, Box 1133.

——. New Haven Redevelopment Agency Archive. Group 1814, Series IV, Boxes 47 & 48.

——. New Haven Redevelopment Agency Archive. Group 1814, Series VIII, Box 126.

New Haven Historical Society.

——. New Haven City Directories, 1963-65.

Grazyna (Grace) Ziolo, Personal History.