People come to Arthur Avenue to stock up. On a recent Saturday afternoon, I stood outside Vincent’s Meat Market with Danielle Oteri, who leads tours of the neighborhood with her husband Christian Galliani. The window of Vincent’s is decked with fat Boston butts and whole sides of pork. Customers stream in and out carrying hefty shopping bags. Danielle knows the Saturday rush well—she grew up at Vincent’s, back when it was called Oteri’s Meat Market. Her great-grandfather opened a baccala store on Arthur Avenue in the 1920s, which her uncle later converted to a butcher shop. Christian also has childhood ties to the neighborhood; he remembers Arthur Avenue shopping trips with his Italian and Argentine parents.
An Italian enclave since the 1890s, the Arthur Avenue neighborhood has remained a culinary and cultural hub for Italian Americans throughout the region. Many of the bakeries, cheese shops and grocery stores have been open for more than 100 years, and some are still owned and operated by the original families.
Danielle and Christian have been leading private food tours of Arthur Avenue on an intermittent basis for the last four years. Starting March 1, they will offer their tour five days a week in partnership with Urban Adventures. An art historian and sommelier, respectively, Danielle and Christian also lead tours on art, food, and wine in the Campania region of Southern Italy through their company Feast on History.
Molly Jean Bennett is a writer and multimedia producer based in New York City. Her essays, poems, and strongly worded letters have appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Atlas Obscura, VICE, and elsewhere.
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Christian and Danielle outside Calandra's Cheese Shop.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Calandra's Cheese Shop is known especially for its ricotta, though it's hard to go wrong here. Try the truffle cheese, try the aged mozzarella. Never look back.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Samples abound at Calandra's Cheese Shop. A crisis of decision is almost inevitable.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Danielle calls Calabria Pork Store "the most instagrammable place in New York City." If you think their signature "pork chandelier" looks majestic, imagine how it smells. This proves that the ceiling of heaven is made not of clouds, but of soppressata.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Addeo Bakers has been around for more than 80 years and used to deliver bread all over the neighborhood. Addeo is especially famous for their pane de ciccioli, sometimes called "cheegola bread," which is a flakey, lard-based beauty studded with pork cracklings and black pepper.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Display case at Addeo Bakers.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Third generation baker Laurence Addeo shows off the ovens at the Hughes Avenue location, where all the bread is baked. There is also an Addeo Bakers storefront just a block away on Arthur Avenue.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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The neighborhood is home to seven businesses that make their own fresh mozzarella. Danielle says they're all good, but the stuff at Joe's Italian Deli is the best. Indeed, this cheese is creamy and slightly peppery in a way that will make you weep.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Treats on parade at Egidio Pastry Shop. Danielle and Christian also offer baking classes here with owner Carmela Lucciola.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Cannoli shells waiting to be made whole by a perfectly rich ricotta filling. The recipe, which Carmela inherited when she took over the bakery from Don Pasquale Egidio, is a secret.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett