Luigi Di Palo, a youthful 56-year-old better known as Lou, runs Little Italy’s century-old Di Palo’s Fine Foods with his brother and sister. The store started out as a latteria, selling only fresh cheese, milk and butter. Di Palo likes to say that he and his family are among the “last of the real, original Little Italy people.” These days the store is a little Italy in its own right with hundreds of Italian specialties......

Rainbow cookies are quite possibly our favorite cookies. Ever. Whenever someone brings a cookie assortment from an Italian bakery we always eat all the rainbow cookies first and usually discard the rest. The best rainbow cookies money can buy are available at Isaac's Bake Shop, 1419 Avenue J in Brooklyn, NY, right across the street from Di Fara's pizza, and just a few blocks away from where we grew up. (We still think it's......

In time for next week’s Columbus Day festivities, the Post’s Steve Cuozzo lets his Ital flag fly with two gushing columns on Italian cuisine. He points out that Italian restaurants outnumber all other kinds of restaurants in New York by a big margin (and that’s not because of the ever-metastasizing Olive Gardens.) He cites seven “marvelous” eateries – Del Posto, A Voce, Abbocatto, Insieme, Fiamma, L'Impero and Alto – that “establish Italian as the cuisine......

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients that you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. It would seem to be nothing less than dereliction of duty for an Italian-American food writer to have never been to the Italian food mecca that is Arthur Avenue, but it does on occasion happen. This oversight is even more glaring given that said food writer is half Calabrese and had never set foot in......

Bruni goes to Franny’s in Brooklyn, rates it a top pick, awards it two stars, and calls himself a newly converted “besotted Franny’s believer.” Says Franny’s simplicity—they serve crostini, cured meats, pasta and pizza (along with a few other items)—“is deceptive. The restaurant finds transcendence in dishes and genres that wouldn’t seem to yield so readily to invention or open the door to so much pleasure.” And Cuozzo says Little Italy is “drawing unaccustomed buzz”......

Feast of San Gennaro. Manhattan’s Little Italy may be constantly shifting borders and shrinking, but this event seems to get bigger every year. Plunk down $3 for a big plastic cup of Italian bianco with peaches. When you’re done sipping, you can fish out the large hunks of wine-steeped fruit with your straw. It’s worth waiting on the long lines for kettle-fried zeppolis that come by the half or full dozen, shook up in a......

With the Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Competition just three days away, excitement is building over who will take home the Mustard Belt this year. With perennial champion Takeru Kobayashi hampered by a reported jaw problem, the Mustard Belt is up for grabs and local contendors may have a shot. Californian Joey Chestnut broke Kobayashi's hot dog-eating world record a month ago, but the New York Post profiled two men, "Crazy......

June 30: Italian Wine Merchants - A Study of Friuli Learn about Friuli-Venezia Giulia through a study of wine and food. Friuli's whites will keep you cool during the summer, but the red varietals hold their own as well. 1:00 - 3:00 pm, $75.00. Register online or by calling 212-473-2323 x106. Italian Wine Merchants - Studio del Gusto, 108 East 16th Street between Park Avenue South & Irving Place. June 30: 5th Annual Tuttorosso Pasta-Eating......

The Hamptons may reek of money, but Coney Island is getting its very own scent, courtesy of downtown fragrance company Bond No. 9. Inspired by all the recent development along Brooklyn's bayshore, parfumeur Richard Harpin designed a location-based scent that is the borough's first from the company. It will retail for $40 an ounce, $125 for 1.7 ounces or $180 for 3.4 ounces, indicating to us that the value lies in the increasing size of......

No more Drown the Clown? No more zeppoles, chased down by some gelato? Or walks through Little Italy in a crushing sea of humanity? The Daily News reports that Community Board 2's street events committee is recommending that the board reject permits for San Gennaro. An anonymous board member said, "[The feast] used to be a reflection of the community. They've become homogenized, with the same vendors selling the same stuff, the same food,......

Joseph Barbera, one part of the famed cartoon duo Hanna-Barbera, has died at the age of 95. In his life, which started out in New York (Little Italy and then Flatbush), he created Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones and also worked on The Smurfs...all of your childhood favorites, over 100 cartoons in 4 decades. While in New York Barbera attempted banking, playwriting and amateur boxing. He then sent a sketch to Collier's magazine......

Fusion cuisines are all the rage, but the idea of mixing flavors across boundaries is hardly new. On Grand Street, Nyonya sits among the remnants of today's Little Italy; the restaurant's name refers to "the ladies" -- the women of Chinese-Malay marriages. Also known as Straits Chinese food or Lauk Embok Embok, the flavors of Nyonya mix Chinese and Malay components, deriving from grandmothers' recipes and the influence of Indonesian and Thai cuisine. Coconut......

-- Late breaking news: Rudy Fleming was convicted of murder in the Nicole DuFresne case-- we'll followup tomorrow. -- If you don't work in the financial service industry, you may have missed out on the Aleksey Vayner meme, in which a kid at Yale sent a hilariously insane application video for a job at an i-bank. All hell broke lose shortly after the video was leaked to the internet. This short video, set to......

-- The Caribbean Day Parade is tomorrow-- it starts at 11am on Eastern Parkway. But check this out: "the really cool kids will be lining up to watch predawn procession known as J'Ouvert that kicks off at 2 a.m." -- Banksy punks Paris Hilton's new CD in the UK-- but apparently he didn't do any in NYC on his recent visit. -- The NYPD is now 17% women, but surprise, surprise-- they only hold......

Stephanie Gray writes: i can't quite place these NY streets. it's 1986.. it looks like a street near NYU b/c there's one sign that says DOJO restaurant.. there are other businesses names, but I don't know them. not sure the DOJO has moved. this video reminds me of what old school nyc. not everyone looks wealthy. i also thought this street looked like elizabeth street or old little italy. and i also wanted to......

Ooh - Goggla on Flickr saw Boy George yesterday and took some pictures of him doing his community service. She writes:Ah, I've waited 25 years to meet this man and here he was, picking up trash along my walking route to work. It was rather sad seeing him there with everyone on the sidewalk pointing and staring, but he looked to be in pretty good spirits.That's good to know - and we bet Boy......

Finally: Boy George has reported for his community service (after he falsely reported a robbery in his apartment) - sweeping streets in Chinatown and Little Italy. However, the paparazzi likes a celebrity in an orange Department of Sanitation vest, so they have followed him around, leaving him a bity crazy:As he went about his duties, the singer was swarmed by reporters and photographers while he stood on the median of a Lower East Side......

Residents of Chinatown, Lower East Side, Soho, Nolita, Little Italy, etc., get your cameras and Culture Club vinyls ready: Boy George will be cleaning your streets starting August 14. The Department of Sanitation told the Daily News that Boy George will get a "shovel, broom, plastic bags and gloves" when he starts his 5 day community service stint (required after he pleaded guilty to falsely calling in a break-in). The DoS says that the singer......

In this heat it’s time to turn to all things frozen, which brings up the eternal question: What is the ideal receptacle for ice cream? Cups are really are a wimp’s way out and cones can be too kiddy. The answer may be found at Villabate Pasticceria in Bensonhurst. There you can get outstanding gelato served inside a brioche roll. This is not your usual ice cream sandwich. Villabate is known for its bread—its semolina......

- Nicholas Minucci was found guilty of a hate crime assault - A federal court of appeals says the city can't enforce the law that prevents 18-21 year olds from buying spray paint and markers, but the city will appeal again - An anatomically correct Statue of David in Little Italy freaks out some mothers - A suspect has been ID'd in the Sunset Park beauty salon rape - MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow was......

It's Memorial Day in the city, and there are many events, from parades to concerts - a commemoration at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monuments in Riverside Park at 10:30AM, a parade on City Island at 2PM, a concert with Frank Sinatra Jr. at 3PM in Little Italy, and a free concert from the Philharmonic at St. John the Divine at 8PM. For more info, check out NYC Visit and go to their calendar of......

- Bad news: four people have died in Brooklyn of meningitis in the past three months. Terrible news for X-Men fans Black Nationalists: Professor X is one of the victims. - Looks like the MTA and TWU contract negotiations are going to go to binding arbitration. - Congrats, Little Italy, Momus loves you! - Cutest science ever! Panda painted on human hair. - Cutest TMBG cover ever: Kiss Me Son of God - Note......

Gothamist has been entranced by the coverage of the John Gotti Jr. racketeering trial. From what we've read, being in the mob is exactly the way it is in the movies! Here's testimony from Michael DiLeonardo, Gambino loan sharker and star government witness, via the NY Times:He went to an apartment on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, a few blocks from the Ravenite Social Club, home base of the Gambino family. There he waited in......

Allyson Jacobs, fashion designer...

Frank Jackson, Founder and Director, Art For Progress...

- Derek Jeter, the product of an interracial marriage, gets hate mail for his interracial dating habits - Weehawken Street has the most do-no-urinate signs per square foot in all of the city - Will outdoor showers be the new black of luxury apartments? Not if Gothamist can help it - John Gotti Jr. is free on $7 million bond; Curtis Sliwa watches and waits - Big Pussy pleads guilty to assaulting his girlfriend while......

- New York magazine's new subway poster ad push will involve new, timely creative every day... the September 15 posters will have the "calorie counts of favorite [San Gennaro] festival foods like calamari, cannoli, pizza and zeppole" which sounds like a reason to revolt - Gothamist don't wanna how bad it is for us to go to Little Italy - The woman killed by a truck on 14th Street and 6th Avenue last Friday was......

July 14: Bastille Day at Paris Commune Celebrate Bastille Day, with a prixe fixe menu ($29.95) that includes choices like filet mignon with duck mousse, and salad nicoise. The cost of dinner covers an additional course for dessert: a ride along the Hudson River in a rickshaw-styled Petite Cab courtesy of Bicyclette Wines after dinner. 99 Bank Street, 212-929-0509. July 16, 17, 23, 24: Blue Crab Festival Join the gang at Bar Minnow from 11......

June 9th: The Rosés of Summer The good folks at Artisanal Cheese Center invite you to taste summer, in the form of six refreshing rosés paired with twelve of the world's best cheeses. Tix are $75 and can be purchased by calling 212-871-3144. Artisanal Premium Cheese Center, 500 West 37th Street, 2nd Floor, entrance on 10th Avenue, 6:30pm - 8:30pm. June 11 & 12: The Third Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party Time to bring......

Gothamist loves travel - but hates travelling. Who actually enjoys shuttling to the airport, long flights, the interminable wait for your luggage when you finally arrive at your destination? Let's not even discuss the whole packing process! And, so when we really need a travel fix, without the hassle, Gothamist finds itself availing itself of the various international enclaves throughout the five boroughs - Koreatown, the remaining UES outposts of Yorkville, Manhattan's Chinatown, Flushing's Chinatown,......