Benanti’s Photo by Tara Ryazansky
Charlie Benanti
By Tara Ryazansky Photos by Max Ryazansky
C
harlie Benanti has been making sandwiches for so long that he’s acquired a special skill. “After so many years, if you say, ‘Make me a sandwich.’ I’ll know what you want,” he says. “We got a good prosciutto, we’ve got a good soppressata, we’ve got capocollo, the rosemary ham is fantastic, too. The mozzarella is the best in the sandwich because cold cuts have salt, and the moz-
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zarella has no salt. It makes it perfect. It balances everything. I can make you one right now.” Charlie gets to work at the slicer. He has been running Benanti’s Italian Delicatessen for more than 45 years. The place carries Italian groceries and delicious homemade foods to go. Customers grab their bread from the front of the store and line up for a sandwich. “What’s up, kid,” Charlie calls out to one customer. “I’ve been coming here since I was a baby,” Cliff Latko tells me.
Now, he comes in from Bergen County when he visits his mother in Bayonne. “We see the kids grow up here,” Charlie says. He’s watched Bayonne grow and change, too. “Thank God Bayonne is still good,” Charlie says. “Change is not bad; I know we were a different generation. But me, I don’t change much.” Neither does the inside of Benanti’s. “Things go up, and they don’t come down. It’s like Christmas every day here,” jokes Charlie’s friend, David Solari, as he
