The 1940 census has Elka Hochfield living with her husband Benjamin and their son Joseph living at 1251 Washington Avenue. Both Elka and Benjamin were Russian born (around about 1870) whilst Joseph was 25, the census shows that Benjamin was a "reverend" at a synagogue, possibly at Temple Adath Israel, which was not far away at 1275 Grand Concourse at East 169th.

The 1920 Census among the family members lists 24-year-old Max, a tailor; googling him I found out he was a survivor of the 1911 Triangle Fire.

http://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/primary/survivorinterviews/maxhochfi...

Those cans look like they have been through a lot, and are still in service. One is marked 1291 Wash, so doing some Shorpy-taught investigating reveals the neighborhood to still be low-income housing taking over the 1291 address and rolling it into 1285.

I'd like to know more about the sign-painter of that window menu.
Them's some gorgeous 2s & 5s!

Our state-of-art toxic waste disposal facility!