Did You Really Want That Snickers Bar?

7:15 p.m., Bensonhurst, Friday, August 12

This rather alarming and discouraging sign — symbolic of a long, hot summer — sat in front of the Lotto machine at Avenue P Pizza Lotto Beer at the corner of Avenue P and McDonald Avenue in the shadow of the F tracks.

I’d gone inside to score some beer for a last reviewing meal at Cupola Samarkanda II, an Uzbek-Russian restaurant just around the corner from the mega-bodega.

Inside, in addition to an amazing (and amazingly cheap) selection of Russian, German, and Balkan beers, I found a little café area where locals sat drinking coffee and eating bad pizza. No one seemed to be eating candy.

This mega-bodega in Bensonhurst (or is it Gravesend?) has everything — except unmelted chocolate bars.