Ray Alvarez, the owner of Ray's Candy Store in the East Village since 1974, was attacked outside of his store last week. But nothing has changed his feelings about his adopted city. 'I love New York. People are very nice. One in a thousand is bad.'
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.For close to 50 years, Ray Alvarez has been working the night shift. Alvarez left the Iranian Navy and immigrated to New York City in the 1960s, finding work as a dishwasher and busboy around the East Village. He opened his own dessert shop, the snacks and sugary treats emporium Ray's Candy Store, on the corner of Avenue A and 7th Street in 1974.
"I went outside to have fresh air about 3 a.m. in the morning," he said, during an interview at his store on Monday. "These two guys came with a package of soda, they wanted to sell me soda. And I said no thank you, I don't want it. And one guy told his friend, 'Hold this, I'm gonna kill this bastard.'"
Despite the incident, nothing has changed his feelings about the area. Alvarez loved the East Village when he first opened the shop in the '70s, and he says he loves it just the same today.Ray's Candy StoreAlvarez suffered bleeding, a black eye and facial wounds. He says he declined to be taken to the hospital that night, but went to be examined later in the week. He has three broken bones in his face, and his jaw is dislocated.
"I told them, I just wanna lay down,” he said. “And I thought, I'm going to sleep and I'm not going to wake up. But I couldn't sleep, [and at] 7 o'clock, I came back down here to my store, opened up. I had an ice cream delivery."
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