Linda Cooperman loved goin gto work with her father, Nathan Brookstein, who, with his brother, co-owned the family’s live-poultry market in Brooklyn. “It was an exciting place for a little girl to be,” says Cooperman about the now-defunct Church Avenue Poultry Company. “Haggling women speaking many different languages, sawdust on the floor, barrels of chicken feed as tall as me, and not just live chickens but turkeys, rabbits, and pigeons.” What didn’t she like? “Eating Chicken.”
The market closed more than 30 years ago, thanks to competition from giant supermarket chains offering frozen chicken. But today, Cooperman says, the demand for fresh poultry has returned. Ergo, her 900-square-foot Church Avenue Poultry Market (13 Popham Rd, Scarsdale; 914-472-1515; churchavenuepoultry.com(, which sells antibiotic-free, free-range chickens from FreeBird Amish Farms in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “Our chickens ($5.25/lb), ducks ($5/lb), and turkeys ($8.95/lb) are never frozen,” she says.
The stoer also sells takeout food. Culinary Institute of America alum Chef Stephen Basteri, formerly executive chef at the Yonkers Raceway, heads up the kitchen, offering chicken roulade ($12/lb), rack of lamb ($24 for 8 chops), lasagna ($9.50/lb), and panini ($8.50). “Everything is made on the premises, from the soup stocks to gravies.” Regarding Cooperman’s dislike of eating chicken, she says, “Since opening, I’ve lost 15 pounds eating chicken. Now I love it.”
