NEW YORK—A fresh coat of paint was drying on the entrance doors of the Pasanella & Son wine shop. A shiny 1967 Ferrari with a trunk filled with wine bottles was parked as a centerpiece of the brightly lit room.
It’s hard to tell that just a month ago a catastrophic hurricane drowned the store and its neighborhoods at South Street Seaport. The interior of the store was spotless, but the storeowner would like to have seen it blemished by a few more customers.
“We are really hurting. There’s nobody living around here anymore,” said Marco Pasanella, owner of store. The wine shop has been named the “Best Wine Shop” by New York Magazine, and is a favorite of Martha Stewart. But its reputation means little when the neighborhood residents are gone.
“Wines are heavy. People don’t carry wine from neighborhood to neighborhood,” Pasanella said. “The bread and butter of our business was people coming home from work.”
