Despana Foods

SoHo
408 Broome St.
between Cleveland Pl/Lafayette St.

P: 212.219.5050

Jackson Heights
86-17 Northern Blvd.
between 86th/87th Sts.

P: 718.779.4971

This beautiful shop is a treasure for New York home cooks seeking the robust and refined ingredients that define Spanish cuisine.  Owned and operated by a respected Queens food importer and chorizo producer, they now have NYC retail shops in both Queens and SoHo.  With dark wood floors, white tiled walls, and the head of a formidable bull, Despana welcomes customers with generous samples and tempting presentations.

What's great:

Exquisite Serrano ham cut to order by machine slice or by hand off the bone.  They sell both imported and store-made chorizos (a spicy sausage made with smoked pork) and lomo (cured pork loin), and a large selection of Spanish cheeses (sheep, cow, goat and mixed milk), noted by origin and months of aging.  They sell hard-to-impossible-to-find products like white anchovies and ventresca (belly) tuna and the best quality of other imports like canned olives, honey and preserves, Cebolla rice, and superb Spanish olive oils.

This is the place to get your ingredients to make Gildas and other kinds of tapas and pintxos.

What to know:

Open 7 days a week. They also sell beautiful kitchen ceramics, cutting boards, baskets and cookware like paella pans.  The store will put a special event together, like a tapas cocktail party, at the store.

They also have a shop in Princeton, NJ, another devoted to Spanish wines located in SoHo next door to their main food store, and an extensive selection of products sold on their website.