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I'm from the Boston area but live in New York City. My family just came down and we had an Italian lunch in Little Italy. I think my Dad put it best when he said that "Little Italy looks more like a set up for the tourists whereas Boston's North End is an actual neighborhood."
I'm from the Boston area but live in New York City. My family just came down and we had an Italian lunch in Little Italy. I think my Dad put it best when he said that "Little Italy looks more like a set up for the tourists whereas Boston's North End is an actual neighborhood."
He would be right.
Little Italy in Manhattan has to showcase itself and live up to something. Showboat if you will.
Thats robs a lot of the "authenticity" of it.
Ive had far better offerings nowhere near it. Its the Olive Garden of Little Italys.
Cities upstate with big historic Italian populations like Utica, Rome, Syracuse and Schentectady still have nearly 80-100 year old businesses going strong, same recipes, no BS. Youll find better Italian there than a lot of places in NYC/NJ.
Chicken Riggies kicks the **** outta most pasta dishes anywhere in the tri-state area, but because its not in NYC, it doesnt "exist."
I'm from the Boston area but live in New York City. My family just came down and we had an Italian lunch in Little Italy. I think my Dad put it best when he said that "Little Italy looks more like a set up for the tourists whereas Boston's North End is an actual neighborhood."
Both are inauthentic. I don't see how one isn't set up for tourists. You really think there are immigrants from Italy in Boston's North End?
Little Italy does not even exist anymore in NYC, its a tourist extension of Chinatown. The best Italian neighborhood in NYC is Arthur Ave. in the Bronx, you know, where there are actual Italians.
Does Chicago even have a Little Italy anymore? or has everything just been relegated to the suburbs?
Technically it still exists, but there are only a few Italian restaurants scattered on Taylor street mixed in with Thai, Japanese, Chinese, French, and American restaurants in which the neighborhood feels more like a University City or other neighborhood with a college nearby. The corner of Polk and Carpenter has two hero/hoagie-type joints, but with an Asian market just down the street. There is a Catholic Church and Christopher Columbus statue in one small park, along with a Garibaldi monument and park on the neighborhood's western end near the medical center. But that's basically all of "Little Italy" in Chicago. I don't know why its ranked higher than Baltimore in this poll, which although has a smaller area than Chicago, has more to offer, and the narrower streets/rowhouses and Bocce Ball court give it a more Italian-like feel, plus its near the Inner Harbor, Harbor East, and Fells Point and being in a more compact city makes it more fun to walk.
IMO this should be the rankings:
1. Boston
2. Italian Market, Philly
3. Arthur Avenue/Bronx
4. Baltimore
5. North Beach
6. Mulberry Street
7. Federal Hill
8. Cleveland
9. St. Louis
10. San Diego
11. Wilmington, DE
12. Chicago
13. Kansas City (in history only)
Little Italy does not even exist anymore in NYC, its a tourist extension of Chinatown. The best Italian neighborhood in NYC is Arthur Ave. in the Bronx, you know, where there are actual Italians.
Though there aren't a huge number of Italians living in Arthur Ave. these days. Most are in the East Bronx.
And Little Italy isn't really an extension of Chinatown; it's that it no longer has many Italians, and now the same thing is happening to Chinatown as the Soho-ization of the Lower East Side continues.
Both are inauthentic. I don't see how one isn't set up for tourists. You really think there are immigrants from Italy in Boston's North End?
I read an article about the North End fairly recently and they claimed of the 10,000 people living in the neighborhood about 30 percent were Italian-Americans. It's very touristy and gentrified, but it feels like an old Italian-American neighborhood that just got gentrified over the last 30 years. It still feels somewhat charming when you walk around the side streets in part due to the old architecture and gives at least the semblance of the heritage of the old neighborhood and what's left.
Little Italy in New York is basically the island of Mulberry Street in a sea of Chinatown(and then the hipsters/yuppies of Nolita to the north). I mean they don't even have any adjacent blocks for the most part anymore, it's that one strip. Of Little Italy itself only about 5 percent of the people have any Italian heritage. The Feast of San Gennaro is fun(the foulmouthed Joe Pesci-soundalike clown at the dunk tank was amusing).
Honestly, though in most cities the best Italian food is rarely in the touristy Little Italy places almost anywhere in the US. It's often over-priced, "Italian-American-style" food or red sauce joints(which can be fun though often completely mediocre). I can find places for great Italian food made by more recently transplanted Italians(making real regional Italian food) in cities that have no "Little Italy" or never had a large historical Italian population. It's not really that obscure a cuisine in US cities--hell, it's not really that hard to make yourself(there's not really many hard-to-find ingredients unlike some Asian cuisines)...
ILittle Italy in New York is basically the island of Mulberry Street in a sea of Chinatown(and then the hipsters/yuppies of Nolita to the north.
But you mean Little Italy in Lower Manhattan. There are like 10 Little Italys within 20 miles or so of Times Square. There are two in Manhattan, two in the Bronx, three in Brooklyn, one in Queens, and much of Staten Island is "Staten Italy". Then there are Little Italys in about half-a-dozen North Jersey communities.
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