There’s nothing new about the Swiss Pork Store and that’s the good news!

It's a throwback, a dinosaur, a trip to the old country. In the
same location since 1950, time has moved forward only on the
other side of the door. Even the customers will tell you how long
they've been coming here to shop.

A local legend of the original owners is that one of the two men
who opened the place in 1950 was German, the other was Swiss.
They were concerned about anti-German sentiment just after WWII,
so they named the shop the Swiss Pork Store, with a wink and a smile.

In the spotless kitchen, the original meat grinder and chopping machine
are still in service. The two huge smoke houses are also original,
as is the large butcher block where meat is butchered. The sliced meats
are seasoned by hand one loaf at a time, baked and smoked on the
premises, bursting with flavor that’s always fresh The best selling sliced
meat is veal loaf beautifully seasoned, delicate and hearty at the same
time. A few more outstanding choices are excellent bologna that has
little in common with childhood memories; four kinds of delicious
liverwurst; zesty, aged German salami; and an exquisite Westphalian
ham that takes 30 days to smoke and age.

There are also several kinds of homemade kielbasa, knockwursts, bratwursts, head cheese, pimento, pepper and olive loafs, all kinds of ham,
Canadian bacon, perfectly smoked, thick-cut slab bacon and a full line of meat - and that's just a sampling.

In the fresh meat department, house-aged NY strip steaks, porterhouse steaks and sirloins are butchered to your specification. Chopped chuck
is ground while you wait, and even the chicken is cut to order. Good Polish sauerkraut is made with bacon, apples and onions. Warm German
potato salad is well worth a try, as are German ham salad with apples, pickles and capers and hot pastrami sliced thick or thin.

The Swiss Pork Store is small, but the shelves are filled with lots of imported dry groceries. There's a good selection of German, Polish,
and Austrian cookies, biscuits, candy, gooseberries, or sour cherries in light syrup, flavored baking oils, sauces, teas, bread, pickles, jellies,
jams and many other European items.*

A grandmother would feel right at home at the Swiss Pork Store!

*Excerpt from an article that appeared in The Star Ledger
on July 30, 2003 written by Brooke Tarabour