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WATCH: Rat spotted inside UES gourmet shop

  • Last Updated: 2:21 PM, December 4, 2012
  • Posted: 1:04 AM, December 3, 2012

Maybe he was trying to audition for a role in the Nutcracker.

He’s a rat with fine taste.

This unwelcome customer spent early yesterday on display in the window of Zabar’s E.A.T. gourmet shop on Madison Avenue near East 81st Street.

“I’m walking past and I see a rat hanging in the breadbasket inside the store,” said one early bird who spotted the intruder.

He later informed managers, who said they’d call an exterminator.

Other customers were also disturbed by the rat sighting, but not enough to forgo gourmet items like chocolate-covered caviar, which sells for $35 for two ounces.

ANY CHEESE? A rat has the run of Zabar’s E.A.T. yesterday, despite the Upper East Side gourmet shop’s “A” rating. At least it’s not an “absolutely” forbidden dog.
ANY CHEESE? A rat has the run of Zabar’s E.A.T. yesterday, despite the Upper East Side gourmet shop’s “A” rating. At least it’s not an “absolutely” forbidden dog.

A shop regular, Theresa Rohrer, 43, said, “It’s kind of gross, but it’s New York City. You’re bound to have eaten somewhere with rats and cockroaches.”

Managers said they were taking care of the problem.

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