Mulberry Street and some of the quaint streets in and around it in New York City’s lower Manhattan is home to some of the best Italian dining experiences in the U.S. If you want a traditional old-world Italian experience, then Mulberry Street is a great stop, where life revolves around pasta with red sauce and red wine.
Da Gennaro Restaurant on 129 Mulberry is known for being the building where mobster Crazy Joey Gallo was gunned down in 1972. Nearby is the Mulberry Street Cigar Company, a refuge for aficionados of real hand-rolled cigars.
Great cocktails can be found at the Mulberry Street Bar, where scenes from mafia films (Donnie Brasco) and TV show (The Sopranos) have been shot.
Benito II attracts paesanos who have feasted for decades on such staples as seafood linguine or steak ala pizzaiola.
Grotta Azzura has been around since 1908 and remains a favorite of opera tenor Enrico Caruso, not to mention Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack gang. Try the lobster fra diavolo and you won’t have a shortage of wine choices, either by the glass or the bottle.
Angelos’s is Little Italy’s oldest restaurant having been around since 1902. They’re famous for their scungilli con salsa piccante appetizer although the rest of the menu has a ton of other scrumptious choices to make your mouth water. 
If not in the mood for a full sit down dinner, then grab pizza over at Il Piccolo Bufalo or Rubirosa.
If you have a sweet tooth, then the Italian pastries and espresso are fabulous over at Caffe Roma, a longtime favorite on the corner of Mulberry and Broome Streets. Apparently the café has been run by the same family since 1891.
Also for great baked goods, try the Ferrara Bakery and Café, which is another institution in the area. For more sweets, also try La Bella Ferrara only two blocks from the bakery and café.
First photo: Da Gannaro. Second photo: Angelo’s.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
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