Little Italy these days is not exactly the gem you envisioned from mobster movies and urban legend. While this area was formerly a haven for Italian immigrants in the 19th century, Little Italy is today only a shadow of its former self--cut in on all sides by the invading armies of SoHo and Chinatown--and is resigned to a few streets catering largely to hungry tourists. The real flavor of Little Italy is hard to find, but if you happen to stumble into the right restaurant or out-of-the way nook, you’ll still feel that warm and vibrant feeling that pulsed through the neighborhood in the last century.
Most buildings, as in adjacent neighborhoods, are four-to-six story walkups with small rooms, small windows, and small space in general. You’ll also see those famous fire escapes of movies and theater, built in the 19th century after fires destroyed large parts of the neighborhood and killed many residents trapped in the buildings. Unsurprisingly, there isn’t much available real estate here, and be prepared to find what is divided into smaller spaces than you might be willing to live in. Landlords have done their best to keep up with the space crunch in the city, and as a result often advertise what should be one bedrooms as space for two or three. Watch out for "two bedroom" apartments billed as railroads in the small print, unless you don’t mind someone walking through your bedroom to get to theirs at any hour.
The attitude of Little Italy can best be described as gregarious--from the overeager restaurant managers who will solicit your money and attentions with cries of "Mangia, mangia, do you want a massage or a meal, sweetheart?" to the raucous, yearly San Genarro feast, which packs Mott and Mulberry from Houston to Canal with all the fried edibles you can consume and weak frozen daiquiris you can drink. Potential renters should be aware of the noise level on the main drags (Mulberry and Mott) at night when restaurants try to stay alive, as well as the days of madness during the festival. Chances are you won’t get much sleep during the event—but maybe you’ll be one of the people partying in the street anyway.
Services for everything from laundry to catering to hardware abound in the area around Little Italy. It would be difficult to walk more than two blocks for any necessity item, be it fresh fish from the stores that have migrated north from Chinatown or a monkey wrench from the hardware store on the corner. It is certainly evident that Little Italy was conceived on the concept of community, and while many of the original Italian residents have had to move in order to secure larger spaces for their families, the stores that supplied them still remain.
When considering a move to the neighborhood, the bottom line is this—if you want the history to regale on out-of-town relatives and don’t mind compromising the larger space you could have elsewhere; if you want to be close to the downtown action whilst holding onto a slice of the old-time flavor, Little Italy could be just the place you’re looking for.
Little Italy these days is not exactly the gem you envisioned from mobster movies and urban legend. While this area was formerly a haven for Italian immigrants in the 19th century, Little Italy is today only a shadow of its former self--cut in on all sides by the invading armies of SoHo and Chinatown--and is resigned to a few streets catering largely to hungry tourists. The real flavor of Little Italy is hard to find, but if you happen to stumble into the right restaurant or out-of-the way nook, you’ll still feel that warm and vibrant feeling that pulsed through the neighborhood in the last century.