Swan Prime Meats & Italian Specialties Inc. in Bethpage closed its doors on Sunday after over 50 years in business. People who had frequented the store who came to say goodbye said they felt more like family than customers. Credit: Jeff Bachner

After more than 50 years of owning Swan Prime Meats, 78-year-old Tony Lagana is ready to hang up his apron and see whether he can enjoy retirement.

“I’m too old. Can’t do this hard work anymore,” Lagana said Sunday, the last day his business was in operation.

Maybe he will travel with his wife, he said.

Closing up shop is a bittersweet turning point for Lagana, whose business has been in its current Bethpage spot for more than 35 of those years.

“I feel very sad,” Lagana said. He will miss the regulars.

“To me, they were more than a family. I see them every day, and I was looking forward to wait on them, and take care of them the best I could,” he said, wearing a white apron outside the shop, which offered ravioli, stuffed shells, homemade sausage, fresh mozzarella cheese and other Italian foods.

Using his fingers to count generations of customers, Lagana said: “In 50 years, I waited on the grandparents, the parents, and now I’ll be waiting on the youngest.”

“It's gonna be very, very sad for me, very, very sad, to even think about it,” Lagana said. “I don't know what's gonna happen.” 

"The End Of An Era,” his store webpage says.

The business started in 1968 in a farmers market. Now the last day was in its strip mall location on North Wantagh Avenue near a nail salon and a Domino’s Pizza.

Swan Prime Meats customer Vincent Servedio of Levittown swung by Sunday to bid farewell to the store, the proprietor and the workers. Servedio has been a patron for some 40 years, back when the business was in the nearby Nassau farmers market.

“I’m pretty sad, me and a lot of other people. And I couldn’t not come here and say goodbye to Tony and his family and all the workers here, the men and women,” Servedio said.

Swan Prime Meats wasn’t the only shop on the Island to close over the weekend.

On Saturday, Poultry Mart on Middle Neck Road in Great Neck Plaza had its last day in business.

Although the owner couldn’t be reached for comment, a sign on the store said: “Thanks to everyone for your sentiments, words of praise, and all the memories that you have shared with me.”

With Jeff Bachner

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