Porto Rico Coffee Roasters , Since 1907
The name may sound Puerto Rican, but it’s not. Porto Rico Coffee is Italian, owned and operated by the Italian-American Longo family in Greenwich Village Since 1907
RAFETTO’S PASTA
In Greenwich Village Since 1906
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Fresh Homemade RAVIOLIS
#FETTUCCINE #LASAGNA #MANICOTTI
#CAVATELLI #PASTA and ?
To have a great little pasta shop like Raffetto’s is a true Blessing. For years this part of Greenwich Village was a hardcore Italian neighborhoood filled with Italian Immigrants mostly fromthe Southern Italian Regions of Naples (Napolitan), Sicily (Sicilian), and Calabrese, with some Genoese (Genoa) sprikled in as well, as were the Raffetto family who opened their passta shop on Houston Street in the South Greenwich Village neighborhood in 1906, and I’m for one of thousands who are so grateful they did. I’m able to go around the block and get my box of 48 homemade Meat Or Cheese Ravioli and grated Pecorino or Parmigiano to sprinkle over the Ravioli.
You get a box of Raffetto Raviolis and leave them in your freezer. Whenever you’re going to have lunch or dinner, all you have to do is put on a pot of boiling water, throw your Ravioli in, and a few minutes later they’re ready to eat. Drain the raviolis, lay on a plate, put on a pate of butter, a tiny bit of Olive Oil and sprinkle on some grated cheese and you’re all ready to go with a delicious plate of Italian Ravioli. “What’s better than that?” Ravioli from Raffetto Pasta are a God Send.
I love to dress them with Butter & Parmigiano as they dress ravioli in most places around Italy. Or do as the the Neapolitans and Caprese prefer, dressed in Sugo di Pomodoro (Tomato Sauce), and cheese.
MONTE’S TRATTORIA
On Macdougal Street in GREENWICH VILLAGE Since 1918
100 YEAR OLD NEW YORK ITALIAN
Owned and Operated by The MOSCONI FAMILY
Three Generations of MOSCONI’S in front of MONTE’S
PIETRO MOSCONO (Chef/Owner) with Son PETER (GM/Owner)
and PIETRO’S Grandsons : Pietro, Anthony, and Paulo
Like Rafettos Pasta and Porto Rico Italian Coffee Roasters, Monte’s Trattoria is a beloved 100 year old, Italian Food Business in Greenwich Village New York. And just like Rafettto’s, Caffe Reggio, and Porto Rico, Monte’s is a God-Send of a place that we can all go to with our friends and family, for a good Old School Italian meal, and enjoy life. We are quite fortunate that places like Rafetto and Monte’s are still here and haven’t been obliterated by high-rent and other variables which have taken a toll on wonderful Old School Italian places like Lanza’s and DeRobertis Italian Pastries, two 100 year old Italian food-spots (a restaurant & Pastry Shop) that so sadly recently closed. Places like Monte’s Trattoria and John’s of E. 12th Street are two “Living Museum Pieces” that Than God are both still open for us to enjoy and have those warm wonderful feeling of Old New York Italian Enclaves, you can still have a tasty Italian Dinner in restaurants that have been serving New Yorkers and people from literally All Around The World for 100 Years and more. “We Thank You All.”
Inside RAFFETTO’S
Not 100 YEARS OLD
But JOHN’S PIZZERIA of BLEECKER STREET
Is Not Far Behind, serving some of America’s BEST PIZZA
Since 1929
Photo COPYRIGHT DANIEL BELLINO ZWICKE
Vesuvio Bakery
Italian Bread Bakers
PRINCE STREET
Artwork Copyright DanielBellinoZwicke .com
A Readers Comment o The old VESUVIO BAKERY
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I used to live around the corner, on prince street in soho, back when the neighborhood’s italian immigrant roots were much more evident than they are now. there was none of the abercrombie crew emporio starbucks navy barn nonsense back then…. storefronts were owner-occupied a la michael anchin, or (real) art galleries and museums (guggenheim soho, anyone?) or art “stores” like keith haring’s pop shop, or independent interiors shops like ad hoc softwares and almost everything on lafayette and the forever-missed canal surplus down on, you guessed it, canal street. by the time i’d moved into the neighborhood, soho was well on it’s way to transforming from a once-african-then-irish-then-italian immigrant neighborhood into an artist neighborhood, and, though i didn’t realize it at the time, into the bourgouise enclave i’d flee just a few years later for artier (and more affordable) digs.
but, in the meantime, mr. dapolito welcomed us all.
Anothny Dapolito was wonderful and equally friendly to his old friends and “newcomers” like me, probably 40, 50 years his junior. from the first time i walked into vesuvio bakery until the last time i was there before his death (he’d been frail and sick and not always behind the counter in the last years,) he treated me like a part of the neighborhood and i felt, as an extension of that welcome, like a part of the family. a distant cousin, perhaps, but family, nonetheless.
it bore a stark contrast to my neighborhood baker near my just-previous apartment, which happened to be in paris, france… there, the baker (boulangeriere) pretended not to even know who i was for the first year i lived there, despite my arrival roughly four days per week for a fresh baguette and croissants on almost the weekend.
when mr. dapolito died, the doors stayed open, and when people would inquire where he was, the kind and stoic and slightly sad but honest and open reply, given no doubt by someone who loved him more than we did, was this,”he died last week… but thank you for asking about him.”
that “vesuvio bakery” storefront is an iconic new york image, and mr. dapolito was everything that was right with new york. i am glad i got to know him, beyond the iconic surface, if only a little bit. His bread wasn’t half bad, either.
ITALIAN AMERICA’S Favorite Recipes
Including Spaghetti Meatballs
BRACIOLE , ITALIAN SUNDAY SAUCE GRAVY
and Much More …
John’s of East 12th Street
Since 1908
Mobster Lucky Luciano Whacked someone right in front of John’s one day.
Cafe Fanelli
No longer Italian
But it used to Be
The building was built in 1847 and was an Italian Grocery store until 1863 when it became a Saloon. Michael Fanelli’s family purchased the building in 1922 and that’s when it became Cafe Fanelli. During Prohibition, Fanellii’s operated as a Speakeasy from 1920 to 1933. Famous former customers include; Bob Dylan, Chuck Close, and Italian Boxer Rocky Graziano, a native of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
John’s Pizzeria
Almost 100
SInce 1927
CAFFE REGGIO
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Caffe Reggio
Since 1927
Macdougal Street
Greenwich Village
New York
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GREENWICH VILLAGE ITALIAN 