Ray Alvarez, 89, has been slinging egg lotions and fried Oreos for 49 years at his beloved East Village fixture.
Gregory P. Mango
How candy it's!
Beloved East Village fixture Ray’s Sweet Retailer was spared from shutting its doorways after its 89-year-old proprietor fell behind on his payments thanks to just about $50,000 in donations from his sweet-toothed clients, Facet Dish has realized.
The shop’s proprietor, Ray Alvarez, has been slinging egg lotions and fried Oreos for 49 years to clients from Bruce Willis and Madonna to Kim Kardashian and native cops, firefighters and youngsters.
He even stored the doorways open in the course of the notorious 1988 Tompkins Sq. Park riots, saying the “combatants” had been his clients.
However Alvarez bought slammed first by the pandemic after which by inflation. The payments started piling up, together with $18,000 from ConEd.
“All my prices doubled, from cooking oil and potatoes to electrical energy,” Alvarez informed Facet Dish.
The lease can also be excessive, he tells Facet Dish, though his residential lease — he lives above the shop — is round $564 a month.
“Lease is a killer. After I began in 1974, I paid $125 and now I'm paying $6,185 a month. After I paid my lease and the electrical energy, I didn’t have any cash for my well being,” Alvarez mentioned.
He borrowed $10,000 from two sisters – aged 74 and 64 – who work for him. After he burned by that, Alvarez borrowed $1,000 from a pal. However when he wanted additional cash, the subsequent pal Alvarez requested mentioned he couldn’t lend him any cash however might arrange a GoFundMe web page. The pal has requested anonymity.
The objective was to boost $19,740. As a substitute, it raised $48,986 – in a single week, Alvarez mentioned.
“Everybody loves Ray,” mentioned Nicolas Heller, a 33-year-old Williamsburg resident who has been coming to the store at 113 Avenue A by Tompkins Sq. Park since he was an adolescent, primarily for the ice cream. “He was all the time a fixture. Ray has been this outdated man working within the wee hours of the night time, conserving the lights on for his enterprise for so long as I can keep in mind.”
Heller posted about Alvarez’s plight and the GoFundMe drive on “New York Nico,” which chronicles the town and its characters on Instagram, and boasts a million followers.
The donations and tributes got here pouring in.
One individual donated $2,000. One other donated $10, writing: “Ray you might be an East Village icon! Thanks a lot for the a long time of pleasure you’ve dropped at 1000's of individuals alike, and your soulful dedication to your neighbourhood. We love you!!!!!!”
Added a $15 contributor: “We love you, Ray, and we’ll all the time be right here for you as you may have all the time been there for us..pleased early birthday!”
Alvarez, born Asghar Ghahraman, was a younger Iranian navy sailor when he actually jumped ship in America within the early Nineteen Sixties. The penalty for desertion was dying. He lived as an unlawful immigrant for near 50 years earlier than gaining American citizenship in 2011.
Because of the beneficiant GoFundMe marketing campaign, Alvarez says he plans to maintain Ray’s open completely – persevering with to place in 20-hour days, seven days per week. He usually works the in a single day shifts and will be discovered sleeping within the again.
“Folks assist me. Typically, they purchase one egg cream, give me $100 and say, ‘Hold the change,'” he mentioned.
Laura Stassberger, 64, has been coming to Ray’s for “the ice cream and shakes” for the previous 40 years. She works as a companion and just lately popped in with Orin Soloway, 81, a retired newspaper journalist.
“I've been coming right here since my 20s. I really like Ray. He has the perfect egg lotions and I really like when he tells me he loves me. However in the present day he solely had love for Orin and gave her free ice cream,” Strassberger mentioned with a smile. “Ray’s has the perfect egg lotions and it’s a neighborhood staple. I'd hate to see it go.”
Alvarez mentioned he has no need to promote the shop – at the same time as he turns 90 in January.
“Just a few folks wish to purchase it, nevertheless it’s my lifeline. I’m alive due to the sweet retailer, and if I promote it, I'll die. I don’t wish to sit dwelling and watch TV. My life is attached with the sweet retailer,” he mentioned. “If I promote my enterprise, I'll die the subsequent day as a result of the sweet retailer is my life. Everybody is aware of me and comes by and says hey and we discuss music, and if I promote, then I will probably be alone, on my own.”
Swing by the shop and also you’ll seemingly see Alvarez’s signature transfer, smiling as he shouts out the window to passersby, “I really like you!”
The sensation has been mutual for 49 years.
Citymeals pays tribute to Greene
We hear…that Citymeals on Wheels raised $3.7 million at its thirty fifth annual energy lunch on the Plaza Lodge final week — together with a shock donation of $2.5 million from the property of a late supporter. These in attendance, which included Citymeals volunteers Jenna Bush Hager and her twin sister Barbara Pierce Bush, had been teary-eyed at a number of occasions in the course of the occasion — the primary because the passing of its legendary founder, restaurant critic Gael Greene earlier in November.
“Gael had a presence that was bigger than life. She was sorely missed,” mentioned restaurateur Penny Glazier, who has been attending the occasion since 1992.
Emceed by MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, others on the occasion included Citymeals government director Beth Shapiro, Daniel and Katherine Boulud, Sienna Miller, Deborah Roberts, Savannah Guthrie, and Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch.
Citymeals has delivered greater than 67 million meals since its founding and has turn into the most important nonprofit meals on wheels program within the nation. One in 10 older New Yorkers face meals insecurity. Round 14% of Citymeals recipients stay on simply the one meal a day the group delivers.
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