On a windy Friday evening, Oscar López was in no rush to leave Santa Ana Deli & Grocery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Grabbing a frosty bottle of Corona from the scratched-up beer fridge, Mr. López, 47, popped off its cap and settled into a table near the door. There, beneath Corona and Modelo-branded sombreros and a multicolor curtain, he waited for his dinner order — placed at the counter — and his friend to arrive.

“It’s the end of the week, it’s special,” said Mr. López, a construction worker, in Spanish.

After years working in restaurants as a dishwasher, Polo Teco opened Santa Ana Deli & Grocery on the corner of Irving Avenue and Stockholm Street in 2005. The business helped supply the neighborhood’s Mexican population with specialty products like cecina (salted beef) and various hot prepared dishes from Central Mexico. Over the years, however, customers started to linger, preferring to enjoy their “takeout” while socializing at the increasing number of tables crowding the store’s linoleum floor.