Tag: pizza

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Neighborhoods Podcasts Religious History The Immigrant Experience

The Story of Italian Harlem: New York’s Forgotten Little Italy

Daniel Celentano, Festival, 1934. Celentano was born and raised in East Harlem.

One of America’s first great Italian neighborhoods was once in East Harlem, populated with more southern Italians than Sicily itself, a neighborhood almost entirely gone today except for a couple restaurants, a church and a long-standing religious festival.

This is, of course, not New Yorks’ famous “Little Italy,” the festive tourist area in lower Manhattan built from another 19th-century Italian neighborhood on Mulberry Street. The bustling street life of old Italian Harlem exists mostly in memory now.

If you wander around any modern American neighborhood with a strong Italian presence, you’ll find yourself around people who can trace their lineage back through the streets of Italian Harlem. Perhaps that includes yourself.

But it’s not all warm nostalgia and fond recollections. Life could be quite hard in Italian Harlem, thanks to the nearby industrial environment, the deteriorating living conditions and the street crime, the early years of New York organized crime.

So who were these first Italian settlers who left their homes for what would become a hard urban life in upper Manhattan? What drew them to the city? What traditions did they bring? And in the end, what did they leave behind, when so many moved out to the four corners of the United States?

Find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts or listen right here:

LISTEN NOW Italian Harlem: New York’s Forgotten Little Italy

a street vendor with wares displayed, during a festival in Italian Harlem. 1915, Bain Services/Library of Congress

We’re not done with Harlem! In fact we’re building up to an epic new 450th episode for our next show.

FURTHER LISTENING:

Past Bowery Boys episodes with close links to this current show:

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Food History Side Streets

Side Streets: The new Bowery Boys podcast series, only on Patreon

We’ve just debuted a new podcast series — Side Streets, available only to those who support the Bowery Boys Podcast on Patreon, featuring conversation about all sorts of New York City related subjects.

And the first episode is all about food!

Greg and Tom — with some help from producer Kieran Gannon — reflect nostalgically upon old New York City restaurants from the 1990s (Mars 2112, anyone?), wonder what it was like to eat at a chop suey restaurant, praise the strange wonders of Chez Josephine and Congee Village and reveal their favorite diners in the city.

PLUS: Where do the Bowery Boys go to have a delicious slice of pizza? (Hint: Head to Brooklyn.)

Photo by Greg Young

Side Streets will be an every-other-week show, available to patrons at any level. To listen to the show and support the Bowery Boys podcast, just sign up at Patreon.

And check out the various Patreon support tiers for additional benefits such as ad-free episodes, patron-only merchandise, early notice of live events and other fun things.

Visit our Patreon page here.

Our thanks to Patreon supporter Emily Burns who came up with the name for the new show.

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Bowery Boys Movie Club Brooklyn History

Do The Right Thing: Spike Lee’s Brooklyn movie classic gets better with age

We’re sliding into summer AT LAST — ready for great music, hot dancing and breaking into fire hydrants — and so we’ve just released an epic summertime episode of Bowery Boys Movie Club to the general Bowery Boys podcast audience, exploring the 1989 Spike Lee masterpiece Do The Right Thing.

And sticking to the theme of summertime New York City movies — great music, hot dancing, breaking into fire hydrants — the latest episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club explores the brand new film In The Heights and its rich historical details. An exclusive podcast for those who support us on Patreon.

To listen to that episode and to past Movie Club episodes (discussing Coming To America, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Warriors, When Harry Met Sally and many other films) become a Patreon supporter today

FIGHT THE POWER! In 1989, director Spike Lee electrified film audiences with Do The Right Thing, documenting a day in the life of one block in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on one of the hottest days of the summer. 

Inspired by both Greek tragedy and actual events in 1980s New York, Lee’s masterpiece observes the racial and ethnic tensions that boil over at an Italian-American owned pizzeria serving a mostly African-American clientele from the neighborhood.

Listen in as Greg and Tom recap the story and explore some of the historical context for the film — the incendiary nature of New York summers, the realistic portrait of everyday life in Brooklyn, and the true-life murders on which Do The Right Thing is based.

Lee has since explored several historical subjects (Malcolm X, blackkklansman, Son of Sam in Summer of Sam) since making Do The Right Thing, but that exquisite marriage of past and present in his films really breaks through here.

And it doesn’t hurt that his cast includes actors that would become some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

This episode is made possible by our supporters on Patreon, and is part of our patron-only series Bowery Boys Movie Club. Join us on Patreon to access all Movie Club episodes, along with other patron-only audio.

Should you watch the movie before you listen to this episode? This podcast can be enjoyed both by those who have seen the film and those who’ve never even heard of it.  

We think our take on Do The Right Thing might inspire you to look for the film’s many fascinating (but easy to overlook) historical details, so if you don’t mind being spoiled on the plot, give it a listen first, then watch the movie! Otherwise, come back to the show after you’ve watched it.

Where can you watch Do The Right Thing? It’s available to rent on all movie streaming services and is free to watch on the new NBC streaming service Peacock. 

The original film trailer:

Images from Do The Right Thing Way (Stuyvesant Street, between Lexington Avenue and Quincy Street), photos by Greg Young.

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Food History

Kings of New York Pizza: The tale of many Rays, a few Patsys, and one Lombardi

Courtesy Pizza Today

PODCAST REWIND  New Yorkers are serious about their pizza, and it all started with a tiny grocery store in today’s Little Italy and a group of young men who became the masters of pizza making.

In this podcast, you’ll find out all about the city’s oldest and most revered pizzerias — Lombardi’s, Totonno’s, John’s, Grimaldi’s and Patsy’s in all its variations.

But if those are the greatest names in New York-style pizza, then who the heck is Ray — Original, Famous or otherwise?

NOW UPDATED with several minutes of new pizza history –– including an update on Totonno’s in Coney Island, the pizza war firing up underneath the Brooklyn Bridge and the story of Sbarro’s mall pizza domination.

 

 

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A New York ‘pizza tree’ which ran in the New York Times in 1998, outlining the lineage of local pizza. (Read the entire article here, section F6, page 87.)

Courtesy New York Times
Courtesy New York Times

 

Below: The original Lombardi’s back when it sold a lot more than just pizza.

lombardi

 

The 1988 issue of the trade journal Pizza Today, extolling the virtues of New York and one of its signature dishes.

nov88
Courtesy Pizza Today

An ode to Sbarro Pizza, a long way from Bensonhurst

On the grim news today that Sbarro Pizza has filed for bankruptcy, I thought I would reprint my article from July 2009 on the Brooklyn origins of this fast-food slice joint.

The Sbarro family in their original salumeria in Bensonhurst

In my July 2009 roundup of famous New York-style pizzerias, I left out the one pizza company that could technically be called the most recognizable New York pie — at least to those who live outside the city.

Sbarros Pizza is a fixture of shopping malls and roadside traffic stops across the nation. In fact, “across 30 countries” according to the website. In many of these countries, Sbarros is most likely introducing the actual concept of pizza, much less its modified ‘New York style’ offering.

I was surprised to learn that Sbarros actually got its start in Brooklyn, over 50 years ago, and in a fashion similar to Lombardi’s Pizzeria, the tourist-heavy pizzeria in Little Italy.

It too was started up by a Neapolitan named Gennaro — the highly alliterative Gennaro Sbarro, to be exact — with his wife Carmela and their three sons. Like Gennaro Lombardi, the Sbarros didn’t start off selling pizza either. Their original salumeria (delicatessen) in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, was located at 1701 65th Street and 17th Avenue, opening in 1959 and serving the usual Italian-style deli fare, eventually incorporating pasta and pizza onto the menu — and sit-down service along with it.

The similarities to Lombardi’s stop there. The Sbarros had a mind to expand, keeping a tight reign on their operation as they opened 14 additional New York locations well into the 1970s, with all the food made at the original Bensonhurst location. Carmela even continued to personally make the cheesecake.

They could have been content to stop there, but keep in mind that the 1970s was the age of the shopping mall, and the lure of the food court greatly appealed to the Sbarros. Their first experimental pizza outlet was at the King’s Plaza mall in Marine Park. It was here that Sbarros became a counter fast-food restaurant, shedding its salumeria image for a bright, uniform place with a set menu of popular Italian standards.

Needless to say, it was a successful experiment. Incorporating the family business in 1977 and opening the brand up for potential franchises, the Sbarro sons took their restaurant chain national by the 1980s after their father’s death, and rolled it out to international locales by the 1990s.

The original Bensonhurst Sbarros was closed a few years ago, and it’s difficult to find the inherent Brooklyn-ness in a standard-issue Sbarros restaurant today. But if you look carefully, you might find some dusty, fake-looking meats hanging in the window, harkening back to its early Bensonhurst roots. It’s definitely the closest you’re ever going to find New York-style pizza in, say, Salt Lake City or even Kazahkstan. (Picture courtesy PMQ Pizza magazine)

Categories
Podcasts

Kings of New York Pizza: Lombardi, Totonno, Patsy, Ray?

Gennaro Lombardi and (I believe) Antonio Totonno Pero with a dog who must have been fed very well. You’ll notice that Lombardi’s is still a grocery store in this picture. Some bananas with your pizza? Although Gennaro is credited with opening New York’s first pizzeria, it may have been Antonio who came up with the pizzas.


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New Yorkers are serious about their pizza, and it all started with a tiny grocery store in today’s Little Italy and a group of young men who became the masters of pizza making. In this podcast, you’ll find out all about the city’s oldest and most revered pizzerias — Lombardi’s, Totonno’s, John’s, Grimaldi’s and Patsy’s, in all its variations.

But if those are the greatest names in New York-style pizza, then who the heck is Ray — Original, Famous or otherwise?

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New York-style pizza, in its purest form. Lombardi’s pizza was also sold by the slice back in the day, though today its strictly whole pies. And they no longer don’t wrap them up in paper and tie them with string like they used to!

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Pictures from Totonno’s official website of its creator Antonio ‘Totonno’ Pero, who opened his first pizza restaurant in Coney Island in 1924. The original location was gutted in a fire just this year, but they should be reopening anytime.

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Although John Sasso had the great misfortune of opening his small pizzeria just as the Great Depression was getting started, it managed to survive through hard times to become the West Village’s go-to destination for classic slices.

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Patsy Lancieri opened his great East Harlem pizzeria in East Harlem in 1933. They’ll be celebrating their 76th anniversary next month with some truly retro prices. Get there early this time — let this be a warning.

NOT to be confused with this place — the venerable Patsy’s Italian Restaurant in midtown. This Patsy’s does not sell pizza.

To make sure you don’t confuse the two, why don’t you read a U.S. District Court document ‘Patsy’s Italian Restaurant v Patsy’s Pizzeria‘. The words ‘Sauce Litigation’ are actually used.

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Grimaldi’s “under the Brooklyn Bridge” used to also be a Patsy’s. Today it’s your surest bet for a long line, reportedly still worth the wait.