New York City Mafia and Local Food

Sample Menu 

Main First Course Spaghetti with Meatball at the meeting point Full portion spaghetti with what I believe to be the best meatball in NYC

Main Second Course: Eggplant Rollatini in Little Italy Full portion eggplant lightly breaded with mozzarella stuffing and a nice light tomato sauce 

Dessert Sicilian Canola A full sized house made canola (multiple flavors to choose) from my favorite local pastry shop in Little Italy

What To Expect

1. John's of 12th Street John’s of 12th Street in NYC has a rich history intertwined with the Italian Mafia. Located in the East Village, this iconic Italian restaurant opened in 1908 and quickly became a popular spot for mobsters 12. During Prohibition, it operated as a speakeasy, making wine and whiskey in the basement 1. One of the most notorious events associated with John’s was the 1922 assassination of Humberto Rocco Valenti, a Morel family hit man, who was killed there during a "peace meeting. The restaurant’s old world charm and connection to the Mafia have made it a legendary spot, even featured in shows like Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos We meet inside the back room of this iconic "Red Sauce Joint" for many reasons including the historic relationship to the beginnings of the NYC Mafia

2. New York City is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coextensive with New York County, the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world

3. St. Mark's Church In the bowery is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 131 East 10th Street, at the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The property has been the site of continuous Christian worship since the mid 17th century, making it New York City's oldest site of continuous religious practice

4. East Village The population of Manhattan's 17th ward which includes the western part of the East Village and Lower East Side grew from 18,000 in 1840 to over 43,000 by 1850 and to 73,000 persons in 1860, becoming the city's most highly populated ward at that time.  29, 32  As a result of the Panic of 1837, the city had experienced less construction in the previous years, and so there was a dearth of units available for immigrants, resulting in the subdivision of many houses in lower Manhattan Basilica

5. St. Patrick's Old Cathedral The Basilica of Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral, sometimes shortened to St. Patrick's Old Cathedral or simply Old St. Patrick's, is a Catholic parish church, a basilica, and the former cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York, located in the Nolita neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built between 1809 and 1815 and designed by Joseph François Mangin in the Gothic Revival style the Gothic Revival style

6. Nolita The neighborhood was long regarded as part of Little Italy, but has lost its recognizable Italian character in recent decades because of rapidly rising rents. The Feast of San Genaro, dedicated to Saint Januaries ("Pope of Naples"), is held in the neighborhood every year following Labor Day, on Mulberry Street between Houston and Grand Streets. The feast, as recreated on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Houston Streets, was featured in the film The Godfather Part II.

 

It can be hard to reconcile the touristy New York City Little Italy of today with its gritty gangland past. Peering around at all the camera clutching out of towners as they navigate the narrow, tchotchke lined streets, you'd be forgiven for quizzically asking, "This was the stomping ground of legendary mobster 'Crazy Joe' Gallo?" The Wise Guys Guide To Eating In Little Italy: 5 Places For Mob Lore, Red Sauce FOOD REPUBLIC•UPDATED: JUNE 8, 2015 3:54 PM EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. It can be hard to reconcile the touristy New York City Little Italy of today with its gritty gangland past. Peering around at all the camera-clutching out-of-towners as they navigate the narrow, tchotchke-lined streets, you'd be forgiven for quizzically asking, "This was the stomping ground of legendary mobster 'Crazy Joe' Gallo?" There were always restaurants, of course. Gallo's legend is connected with quite a few of them. "Old timers remember, and it's a fact, that before Gallo's murder, Little Italy was home to classic restaurants like Puglia and Grotta Azzura, which are both still in business today," says archivist Arthur Nash, author of the book New York City Gangland. "But, it was never the Restaurant Row that began to spring up after Gallo's bloody last stand in 1972." 

You can live in New York for years and still not know everything about its vibrant neighborhoods. Sure, we know the best New York attractions, the best parks and our favorite restaurants, but the city is still full of surprises. That's why we love it. The once Italian enclave stretched from Canal to Houston Streets, between Lafayette Street and the Bowery, as immigrants from Naples and Sicily flooded the area in the 1880s. Now, it's mostly on the blocks surrounding Mulberry Street, where some of the trendiest clothing stores and the best bars in NYC are located, but what's left is still going strong. Below, we're spilling six Little Italy secrets so you can examine some lesser known aspects of this historic and thriving Brooklyn enclave.