The smell of freshly made bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches wafts through the air and mingles with the rich scent of coffee that has been brewing since the crack of dawn. While waiting in line to place your order, you are blasted by a rush of cool air as the door opens every two minutes for customers rushing in to get their daily fix.

“I’ll have a bacon, egg, and cheese.” That is the phrase that cook, Javier Gomez, hears about 50 times daily while working the grill. Jorge Domingo, his partner behind the counter, works with him brewing fresh coffee to be paired off with the breakfast sandwiches.

Crescent Deli & Grocery, located at the intersection of Newtown Avenue and Crescent Street is the ideal stop to get your morning started in Astoria, Queens. The Deli & Grocery store hours are the same for every day of the week, opening at 5:00AM and closing at 11:00PM.

Basher “Tommy” Hassan co-owns the Crescent Street Deli & Grocery with his brother, Mohammed “Mo” Hassan. The brothers have lived in Astoria for an average of 20 years and have owned the deli for about ten years. They decided that opening up a Deli & Grocery business would be a great way to build something together and spend time together.

Bashar “Tommy” Hassan

“We wanted to be our own bosses” Tommy said, naming it as one of the driving factors for opening the deli & grocery. Tommy, being the more social brother out of the pair, mostly handles customer relations behind the counter while Mo handles the behind-the-scenes processes such as restocking and employee management.

The Hassan brother’s Crescent Deli & Grocery happens to be very popular even though it is not located on a main road in the neighborhood. It is, however, right across the street from an all girls Catholic high school, a Catholic church, and many neighboring apartment buildings. Teachers and students from the school and many of nearby residents are the primary customers for the Hassan brothers. The Hassan brothers have so recently become merchants on Grubhub and Seamless, allowing for customers to have their orders delivered to them–an advancement that has been greatly helping their business.

“I always order a bacon, egg, and cheese,” comments high school teacher, Lauren Fromberg as she waits to place her order with Javier. “It never gets old. And the service here is always great!”

Lauren Fromberg is one of many that starts her morning with a stop at Crescent Deli & Grocery before heading across the street to start her day as an English teacher. It is also impossible for her to avoid running into students, since many of the girls like to stop by to buy chips and other snacks before class. Tommy also mentioned that he and Mo sometimes provide catering for early morning teacher’s meetings as well, making the Catholic school one of their biggest customers.

“It’s always the busiest in the morning, from about 7AM up until late 10AM. Everyone’s rushing in and we’ve all got to keep up.” Mo says as he restocks bottles of orange juice into the refrigerator shelf. “It’s always an adrenaline rush every morning, working to keep up with our customers.”

Competition lurks just up the block in the form of a C-Town supermarket where sales and discounts are never rare. The grocery prices at C-Town are definitely lower than the prices at the Crescent Deli and Grocery and the Hassan brothers simply cannot compete with prices that low. However, the Hassan brothers do have an advantage over C-Town with Grubhub and Seamless. While C-Town does not deliver groceries or food, the Hassan brother’s have an advantage in being the one vendor in the residential area that can serve their clients by bringing the products and food they desire right to their door.

Tommy explains that he and Hassan try to offer more than just food in order to keep up with their competition, the C-Town supermarket on the next block. Aside from having an aisle dedicated to potato chips, hostess pastries, and other packaged foods, the deli also offers a selection of personal items such as toothpaste, soap, and even laundry detergents. In some ways, they have become a “one stop” destination by offering a wide assortment of items so that customers can get everything they need from their store.

“You’d be surprised about what some people buy.” Tommy smiles, commenting on his customers buying patterns. “Some would order breakfast, and then also purchase a bottle of shampoo or bottle of cleaning product.”

The C-Town located just up the block does have much more foot traffic than the Crescent Street Deli & Grocery, however, there does not seem to be as much of connection between customers and cashiers. Customers pace the aisles of the store, grabbing what they need and not interacting much with store employees as they move beside them.

Cashier Sarah Ali has worked at C-Town for a couple of months while attending classes part time at LaGuardia Community College in the neighboring town of Long Island City. She comments that when working at C-Town, she “just tries to have each customer checked out as fast as possible.”

It’s clear that even though C-Town does drive more traffic, Crescent Street Deli & Grocery has been able to stay alive through their connections to their customers. It is their faithful, everyday customers that help their business to stay grounded.

Although the location of the Deli & Grocery definitely does not get nearly as much foot track as it would if it was located just two blocks over on 30th Avenue, it is strategic enough in that it attracts many customers from the nearby high school, and residents from the apartment buildings before they rush over to the train station on 30th Avenue.

When asked about the competition at hand, Tommy simply shrugs and says, “Competition will always be there, it’s just something to keep you motivated to work harder each day.”

They strongly believe that they are able to keep up with the competition by offering deli and grocery items as well as a heaping side of very personalized service for their daily customers.

“I see these guys everyday,” says construction worker Bill Lombardi. “They know my order so well–they always ask me if I want ‘the usual’”

What keeps the Hassan brother’s business stays alive through the strong friendships and ties built with their frequent customers.