When Dan Serafin’s grandparents founded Serafin’s Food Market in July 1926, the business at East 24th and Ash streets was one of many family-owned stores that dotted corners throughout the city of Erie.
So many of those markets disappeared.
But Serafin’s still stands 100 years later. It bills itself as Erie’s oldest grocery store.
Serafin’s has survived because it has transformed itself.
It is not just a corner store.
It is also a family compound.
And it is also a community anchor.
“To think that the nation is 250 years old, and we have been here 100 years of that time,” Dan Serafin said. “There have been so many changes.”
Store is ‘kind of your family’
Serafin, 63, started working at the market when he was a boy. He has not taken a vacation in 15 years, and he has spacious living quarters above the store, a 102-year-old building he and his wife, Michele, bought in 1996 from his parents, Lawrence J. and Anita Serafin.
Dan Serafin has two children, a 27-year-old son who is a firefighter and a 24-year-old daughter who is a nurse. They live in houses across from the store and help out regularly.
“I don’t care how high up you get,” Serafin said with a laugh. “You always are going to be working Saturdays for $8 an hour.”
Serafin’s mother, Anita, continues to keep the books. She is 90.
“It has always been part of the family, and it becomes part of your life,” Serafin said of the store. “It is kind of your family.”
Finding ‘the perfect location’ for a corner store
Serafin’s father died at 81 in 2009. He and and his wife ran the store that Dan Serafin’s grandparents, Lawrence and Mary Serafin, started in 1926. Serafin’s aunt Pauline Serafin was also instrumental in operating the business.
Serafin’s grandparents came to Erie from what is now Slovakia.
Lawrence and Mary Serafin scouted neighborhoods throughout the city before they settled on 24th and Ash streets — a spot between a Polish settlement to the north and a German settlement, known as Marvintown, to the south.
The Serafins spoke Polish and understood German, and the corner made the “the perfect location” for their store, whose address is 601 E. 24th St., Dan Serafin said. He said the store built a solid following long before credit cards and supermarkets and superstores.
“Everything was here,” Serafin said. “Everything was super fresh.”
A store where everyone knows your name
The ubiquitous quality of Serafin’s offerings lives on.
The store sells all kinds of groceries and convenience store items. Video skill games are a newer addition.
Store customers can pay bills at the counter. They can get prepaid cards for cellphone service. They can wire money. They can cash checks. They can play the lottery.
Serafin’s also runs a catering business. And next door to the store is Serafin’s Ash Street Laundry.
“It is just a jack of all trades,” Serafin said.
Of how he runs his businesses, Serafin said, “It is like an open house,” and he referred to an iconic TV sitcom.
“It’s like ‘Cheers,’” Serafin said. “You pretty much know everyone’s name, and they know your name.”
A presence that helps ‘stabilize’ a neighborhood
All told, Serafin or his corporation, Serafin Inc., own the store and the laundromat, seven restored houses next to or near the store and several nearby vacant parcels.
Serafin also owns a garage across the street from the laundromat. The Eastside Neighborhood Association meets there every month. Serafin is one of the neighborhood improvement group’s biggest backers.
“He is so welcoming,” said Margarita Dangel, 69, the retired site director of the Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network initiative that focuses on the city’s east side, including the area around Serafin’s Food Market.
“He is present for people,” Dangel said. “He does everything in his power to stabilize the area around him, as far as he can reach.”
Dangel has witnessed Serafin help countless store customers. Many are from foreign countries and are learning English. Serafin helps them fill out forms for paying bills and other services.
“The people who visit the store,” Dangel said, “are considered a person and not just a customer.”
A treasured spot in the middle of a food desert
Serafin’s Food Market is an oasis amid a food desert — a census tract area in which at least one-third of the residents live a mile or more from a supermarket or large grocery store.
Food deserts often exists in poorer areas of a community. The poverty rate in the area of East 24th and Ash streets is 31.4% to 27.5%, higher than the city of Erie’s poverty rate of 25.7%, according to Census figures.
Serafin’s has always sold fresh fruits and vegetables as it does its part to encourage healthy eating habits among its customers. Serafin and his family have also invested hours and hours to ensure that their customers and their neighborhood are safe.
“The neighborhood would be lost without Dan Serafin, 100%,” said Bernie Slomski, the president of the Society of the Holy Trinity social club at 604 E. 23rd St., a block from Serafin’s Food Market.
Celebrating 100 years, and ready for many more
Slomski, 72, grew up at East 21st and Ash streets and has remained connected to the neighborhood in the 15 years he has been president of the Society of the Holy Trinity. The society and Serafin have worked together on a number of improvement projects.
One of the biggest was the effort to address unlawful liquor sales and other nuisance offenses at Rumors Lounge at 602 E. 24th St., the site of the former Warsaw Cafe. Serafin was instrumental in the fight.
“He was steadfast. He did not get discouraged,” Dangel said.
Rumors closed in 2020. The Holy Trinity Society purchased the property in 2025 and razed the former lounge building. The parcel’s empty lot is used for parking and for community events for a neighborhood that Serafin and his store have helped hold together.
“He goes above and beyond,” Slomski said.
Sefarin’s has no plans to depart. It is marking its centennial year with banners on utility poles outside the store. Dan Serafin said the store plans to hold a party.
On a whim, he sent an invitation to the rapper and actor Snoop Dogg. Another invitation went to the Harlem Globetrotters, who visited Serafin’s Food Market 30 years ago. The Globetrotters are also celebrating their centennial in 2026.
Serafin has no idea what will come of the invitations, but said “we are going to have something.”
For Slomski, the celebration will be well deserved — for Serafin’s and Dan Serafin.
“Dan Serafin’s commitment to that neighborhood,” he said, “is unmatched.”
