Until Carol took me and a bunch of visiting company New Zealanders to the annual Feast of San Gennaro a couple of years ago, I had no idea that Little Italy still existed in Manhattan.

And really, overwhelmed by Chinatown and Soho.. it only exists as a stubborn pocket, a few secondary blocks. Little Italy is now a vestigal area of food stores, restaurants and tenements existing more as a need to keep a popular tourist destination alive and as a placeholder of Italian tradition.

Pride, really.

In fact, if you dont know where it is.. you will blink and miss it, unless you make that turn on Mott or Mulberry Street in Chinatown and stumble across the murderers row of Italian restaurants.


Still some of the best Italian food in the city.. although Staten Island aint shabby either...

And thats where me and the Cappy headed for a midnight run to show me some of her old haunts.



Desserts!


Caffe Napoli
Mulberry Street
Little Italy
















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