Service Safari — Ave P Gourmet Juice Bar & Grill

The Ave P Gourmet Juice Bar & Grill Deli is the most convenient for me, as It’s right next to the Avenue P subway stop as well as a 3 minute walk from my apartment. I live in Gravesend, Brooklyn, a quiet neighborhood in South Brooklyn. Being nearby and 24/7, this makes the deli easily accessible. My favorite comfort food from the deli is a chopped cheese, as I found it to be the best item from their menu.

The first step I did was look up my deli online to see if the information was accurate. For a local deli my expectations weren’t too high, but the information was surprisingly helpful and correct. When doing a quick search for “deli near me”, however, this deli does not pop up, meaning the customer must directly search for the deli on Google.

This is the deli I go to from the outside POV. There is lots of signage which is helpful, but the congestion may be confusing for people walking by. The deli is open 24/7, and they accept EBT as we can see from the signs. They also apparently have an ATM, but I haven’t seen it inside so I’m not sure if that’s true. As you get closer to the door, I noticed that they also have no smoking signs, tap to pay, Uber Eats, face mask required (not true), no pets, and you are on camera signage.

They recently changed the layout of this deli. Before the candies were in the center of the walkway. This change in layout reduces clutter and showcases all the snacks in a more easily viewable way. Additionally, this makes the walkway more accessible for people in wheelchairs. When ordering an item from the grill, this entices a customer to buy a snack as well while they’re waiting for their food.

This deli also has additional snacks and drinks in the back corner of the store. Usually I don’t order snacks from here because they only carry small bags which tend to be more expensive, though sometimes I’ll get a snack to go with my sandwich. This section isn’t easy to see from the front and could be missed, but is easier to see now with the snack boxes moved to the side.

This deli has a variety of drinks. I used to get a fanta in the glass bottle, however they randomly stopped carrying them at the deli and don’t exist here anymore.

One of the problems with this store is how crowded the items are and how they are randomly placed, for example the paper towels at the top of the drink cans. For example, in the image below there are paper towels stacked on top of the cooler that are for sale. Without proper labeling, customers may think this is inventory and not for sale. Additionally, being up so high these items are difficult for shorter customers to reach.

I ended up grabbing an Arizona iced tea can that was advertised at the front of the store. I then picked up my chopped cheese and checked out along with my snacks and drink. They provided me with 2 plastic bags, which while convenient isn’t very sustainable. This is the cashier at the deli, who sometimes switches out with his son. I usually pay with apple pay. This is the easiest payment method to use and the quickest way to pay. Paying digitally without a physical credit card also prevents getting your information stolen, which is useful. This deli also accepts cash, card, and EBT.

This deli only provides plastic bags, which are convenient for the customer, but not sustainable. I usually use these as garbage bags in my room. This food is quite affordable, with my total being around $10 for a sandwich, Twinkie, drink, and bag of Cheetoes.

I ended up getting all my food, snacks, and drink and went back to my desk where I eat. I wish the deli worker gave me more napkins as the sandwich is quite messy. Besides this, my drink wasn’t as cold as I like it to be, most likely because of the freezer system at the deli not being the best. I later added some ice in a cup for my drink.

This is the sandwich itself. It was very nice to eat and was the perfect combination of cheese, beef, onions, and peppers. As mentioned earlier, there is a miscommunication when asking the deli worker for no tomatoes, so I don’t even bother. Even with the tomatoes, this chopped cheese is very good, and I had a good experience ordering my comfort food.