EAGLE PROVISIONS Eagle Provisions 628 5th Ave. (18th St.), Park ...

Eagle Provisions, a neighborhood grocer in Park Slope, is something of a blast from the past. The cluttered black, white and red sign that spans three storefronts gives the shop a look that pre-dates marketing, branding and the other forms of stream-lined savvy that define contemporary businesses.

Despite its recent attempts to cater to a more gentrified crowd, Eagle Provisions started off as a Polish market in the 1940s and still counts the expat clientele as its core?and in many ways, its soul. A shrine of sorts at the front of the store consisting of an icon of the Virgin Mary along with the symbol of Poland?a stern silhouette of an eagle wearing a crown?and the American and Polish flags, all testaments to Eagle's clear-cut allegiances. More subtle hints?checkout girls wearing red and white broad-striped smocks and the distinctly euro techno music pumping out of the speakers?point to the "total immersion" shopping experience to follow.

Co-owner Richard Zawisny, a Polish immigrant with a Brooklyn accent, runs his late father's store with his brother, John. Bopping to the music, he takes me to the back rooms where the real legacy is upheld: sausage-making.

The products that distinguish Eagle Provisions are their house-made deli meats. By "meat," I mean pork. Zawisny learned the ins and outs of Polish charcuterie from his father, a butcher by trade who worked at Eagle Provisions for 15 years before taking it over in 1979.

The doorway beside the deli counter is a portal to a world of timeworn practices that have long remained unaltered. Four ancient ovens hickory smoke house-meats, and gigantic mixers, gorgeous pieces of machinery that are more than 100 years old, still service 500-pound batches of meat nearly three times a week, and even more frequently during peak season.

Zawisny pushes open the door to the meat locker. Vats of sorted pork parts?meat, skin and fat for his deli items, and bones that will be re-sold for use in cosmetics?rest on the floor, and a backdrop of meats in casings drying on racks imparts a thick, briny and surprisingly wonderful aroma.

The variety that Zawisny churns out?liverwurst, franks, blood pudding, head cheese, jellied pigs feet, knockwurst, smoked pork tenderloin, country paté, several types of kielbasa and others?all speak to the rural origins of these food customs. Zawisny explains that even though you don't have to buy the whole hog, old timers still expect him to produce as though he does. "Polish people are more or less the type of people who come from the old country," explains Zawisny. "They use every part of the hog?ears, cheeks, feet?"

Through his father's tutelage, Zawisny has retained old-world traditions, using mostly natural casings (cow intestines for the larger sausages and cold cuts; pigs intestines for the hot dogs) and avoiding any kind of preservative or other deviations from the classic preparations. And so, the charcuterie is as heavy, unrefined and assertive as what one might expect to eat at a Polish farmhouse.

The busiest season is currently underway, with the house-made kielbasa and more than 600 varieties of beer that are carried here supplying Octoberfest revelers, and smoked whole hams, smoked boneless hams studded with cloves and smoked whole birds such as duck, turkey, chicken and occasionally goose, being ordered for upcoming holiday feasts.

"I can't get bored here," grins Zawinsky. "Slicing meat, chopping, playing Lotto?there's a lot to do."