By DIANE CARDWELL

“We Are Nuts About Nuts,” the awning proclaims, as the classic stainless- steel roaster spins in the window, churning out three-kilo batches of hot almonds, cashews and pistachios, up to 10 times a day. Beyond the glass, bins of macadamias, raisins and pumpkin seeds nestle amid containers of dried fruit, store-made snack mixes and black licorice.

There are plenty of places to buy nuts in Manhattan, from grocery stores to the occasional subway platform. But if you want them fresh, perhaps even still warm, from the roaster, SP’s Nuts and Candy may well be your only option.

Once upon a time, shops like this were common in the city . Today, SP’s owner, Michael Yeo, is keeping alive a New York tradition that has all but vanished over the past several decades, one he simply happened into.

He explained that in 1996, when he bought the business on Church Street in Lower Manhattan, it came with a roaster, and now he was stuck with it. “My customers know that I roast here, so I cannot stop,” he said . “If I do - big trouble.”

The nut shops, which often sold sweets and, in the summer, ice cream , date back to an era in New York when specialty stores and niche shopping districts were the norm.

“If you wanted to buy deli, you went to a deli shop; if you wanted to buy nuts, you went to a candy shop,” said Bentzy Klein, owner of Bentzy’s Brokerage, a nut and dried fruit supplier in Brooklyn. “Now you could go into Fairway,” he continued, referring to the large grocery store, “and you could buy everything that you need, and they have top of the line.”

Much of the business has moved online and is largely gift baskets, he said. “In the Jewish neighborhoods, yes, you still have these people that will go in before Shabbos and buy up a bunch of stuff because they’re sitting home and they’re going to nosh on everything,” he said. “But most of the business is gifts.”

Of the 38 Manhattan retail food operations licensed with the word “nut” in the company name, only 7 bear any resemblance to the nut sellers of yore, and none of them roast.

Economy Candy, a Lower East Side institution since 1937, still sells nuts , but no longer roasts. “It just became too much, with the oils and the smells and the Fire Department coming to inspect every week,” said Jerry Cohen, the owner.

Rocco D’Amato, who owns Bazzini, one of the largest import and wholesale nut operations in the city, blamed the decline on rising real estate costs, migration to the suburbs and competition from supermarkets and drugstores .

“You have nuts now being packaged in very sophisticated, gorgeous packages by the Europeans, then you move the customer base out into suburbia, then you add in the dramatic increase in rent, and you have the catastrophe that you have now,” he said.