Little Italy north? (1947)

[Grant Barrett]

On 9/25/01 14:05, "Grant Barrett" <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG> wrote:

> On 9/24/01 23:02, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
>> Getting us hungry again, Barry.  I was struck by this application of
>> "the heart of Little Italy" to a quarter within East Harlem.
>
> There are still a couple of classic, old-school, old-New York Italian
> restaurants in the neighborhood, though I can't for the life of me remember
> them right now.

Rao's is one of them.

http://www.nycity4u.com/mainFood&Dinning.htm

"Rao's contains only 12 tables, which makes it next to impossible to score a
reservation here unless you're Martin Scorsese or another one of Rao's
favorite patron. Closed on weekends, Rao's only offers one seating weekdays.
Addr: 445 E 114th St
Subway: (6) to 116th St
Tel: (212)722-6709"

Also mentioned in this very interesting story about Dutch Schultz:

http://www.paulsann.org/killthedutchman/chapter_XII.htm

"While Coll's kidnapping proclivities made him an extremely poor risk in the
lower levels of the town's society even beyond his little problem with Dutch
Schultz, he was about to suffer a rash of publicity that would put him on
the very bottom of all the popularity charts in every walk of the city's
life. It happened on July 28, 1931, even before the full story of the
DeMange caper had dribbled out through the underworld's paper curtain. On
that steaming summer day, a touring car carrying five gunmen drove into
crowded East 107th Street in Spanish Harlem, slowed down in front of Joey
Rao's Helmar Social Club and laid down a stream of fire, presumably aiming
at some lucky bum who had been marked for the spot but wasn't on it. While
the mission failed, it had a far more tragic effect, for in the hail of some
60 bullets a five-year-old boy, Michael Vengalli, was killed, and four other
children playing on the slum street were wounded."


--

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.worldnewyork.org/
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