Beloved 90-year-old NYC candy store owner back at work after he’s brutalized with belt and rock by stranger: ‘Shaken up really bad’

He’s too tough to die — or even take the day off.

The gutsy 90-year-old owner of a beloved East Village candy store was back behind the counter Thursday after an ugly beatdown by a stranger peddling two cases of seltzer outside his shop.

Ray Alvarez, the revered proprietor of Ray’s Candy store since 1974, sported a black left eye and an ugly wound above his left ear after the 3 a.m. Tuesday assault where he was slugged with a rock attached to a belt, with the attacker and a second man still on the loose.

“One of them hit [my employee] in the chest and the other guy said, ‘Hold this, I want to kill this bastard,’” recalled Alvarez. “He took something that looked like a belt with a stone on it and he swung and hit me in the head. I fell down on the floor outside — I was bleeding and bleeding.”

Alvarez left the shop for some fresh air on Avenue A near E. 7th St. before the attacker and a second man approached him, with things escalating in the blink of an eye.

“I never saw them before,” said Alvarez. “The tall guy that hit me was Latino.”

Alvarez, who lives in the building where he runs the store, spoke as a stream of neighborhood residents popped in Thursday to check on his condition after the unprovoked attack. The local legend was laughing and smiling as they offered support or just said hello.

“I was shaken up really bad, but I came back,” he said. “I had to do my work. I came back before 9 a.m. the next day. I had an ice cream delivery and I had a lot of things to do.”

It was not the first time the neighborhood came to the aid of their favorite local businessman. A recent GoFundMe campaign raised more than $50,000 to keep the shop’s doors open, and a mural depicting Alvarez was unveiled for his 90th birthday on Jan. 1.

Eyewitness employee Gabe Thorne said the two assailants were trying to sell the seltzer to Alvarez when things went sideways, with one of the attackers asking “Do you believe in Satan?”

“Ray didn’t really know what he was talking about,” said Thorne. “And the guy was really weird ... It was next-level crazy.”

“Ray’s so strong — that would have killed another person. He’s the strongest person I’ve ever seen,” he added. “Yesterday he was down but all of a sudden he’s back to his old self. He didn’t want to go to the hospital or anything.”

The attack left Alvarez with a bloody gash to the head and police said he initially declined medical attention after the suspects fled down Avenue A. The assailant who struck him, dressed all in black and sporting a thin beard, was caught on surveillance cameras two blocks away pushing a purple shopping cart filled with items, cops said.

Alvarez described a colorful life where he jumped ship after nine years in the Iranian Navy, landing in Miami back in 1964 before eventually finding his way to the city and his store. Before opening for business, he recalled working as a dishwasher and in a Brooklyn sheet metal factory.

A former employee, like many in the neighborhood, was stunned by news of the attack.

“When I woke up and saw the news, I thought I was seeing things,” said the ex-worker. “Who in their right mind, what kind of monster, would hit Ray? Ray has a heart of gold.”

The NYPD on Thursday released the camera images of the suspect and asked the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

Alvarez said the brutal assault did nothing to change his feelings about the city: “I still love New York. I love America and I love New York.”