Zabar’s Co-Owner Stanley Zabar Dies at 94

Stanley Zabar, who helped build his family’s Upper West Side grocery business into a New York institution, has died at 94. In an Instagram post on November 10, Zabar’s shared news of his death and portrayed him as a quiet presence behind the business. No cause of death was announced by the store.

Zabar worked with his brother Saul to continue the business founded by their parents, Louis and Lillian, in 1934. His legal and financial expertise helped shape the store, while Saul oversaw its operations. The business consolidated five locations into its market at West 80th Street and Broadway, known for specialty foods including smoked fish, cheese and coffee.

The store said Zabar and his wife, Judith, supported the arts, education and culinary training, including by contributing to the Careers through Culinary Arts Program, NYU Langone Health, Symphony Space, the New York Public Library and Hunter College. It also described his family as his greatest devotion. Saul Zabar died at 97 just over a year before his brother.