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Senator George Borrello, President of the Conference of Italian American State Legislators, has announced that Italian-American Day will be held on Monday, May 20 this year. This year’s events will include the popular Mulberry Street Fair in the Well of the Legislative Office Building, the Festa Italiana in Troy and three celebrity guests who will...

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At one point or another, most people have fancied themselves LEGO artists, creating miniature masterpieces out of the wildly popular Danish building blocks. For Chicago-based artist Rocco Buttliere, however, LEGO are more than tiny, plastic blocks-they’re a medium for exploring the world around us and the touchstones of human civilization.  Buttlie...

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Caffe Italia, a fixture on Central Avenue for 50 years that was founded by an Italian immigrant whose offspring still run the restaurant, is planning to move to a Guilderland shopping plaza late this year, in the process gaining more than twice as much seating and abundant free parking. Maria Romeo, who owns and manages Caffe Italia with her three...

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Rosanna’s Italian Kitchen in Albany is under new ownership. The owners of Albany’s The Hollow Bar + Kitchen, Dora and Michael Philip, along with Chef Rachel Mabb and industry veterans, Jory Leanza and Elizabeth McCann, are buying the restaurant. “We love what the Bongiornos’ created in 1978 and what Brianne Baggetta and Tim Dillon reimagined and br...

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Senator George Borrello, President of the Conference of Italian-American State Legislators, has announced that celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich, the Emmy award-winning public television host, best‐selling author and restaurateur, will be a 2023 Italian-American of the Year honoree for this year’s Italian-American Day on Monday, May 22. The annual ev...

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After years of stops and starts, the story of Laurina Ecobelli is finally coming to the big screen on Monday in Albany. Called “Laurina,” the short film is part of a longtime effort by Ecobelli’s grandchildren, Tom, an actor and screenwriter, and his sister Lora Lee, a writer and actress, to bring her heartbreaking and inspiring story to film. Long...

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Joe Aiello’s workday begins long before the sparrows sing on Dongan Avenue in the city’s South End. Each morning before sunrise, Aiello unloads pallets of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, bananas, pears, oranges, apples and herbs from trucks arriving from New York City’s sprawling produce markets. On Monday, when winter’s first major...

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In 1989, President George H.W. Bush officially declared the month of October Italian Heritage Month to celebrate the achievements and contributions people of Italian descent have made to the United States. People of Italian descent have been finding many ways to celebrate their heritage, from cooking authentic dishes and hosting gatherings to parti...

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We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our member and supporter, Fr. Anthony Chiaramonte. Father was our regular celebrant for almost every Saint Patrick/Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony masses. Father especially enjoyed celebrating his feast day mass celebration with us and reminiscing with people about growing up in the old neighborhood i...

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A proposal to yank the Columbus Day state holiday from the calendar and recast it as “Indigenous People’s Day” is gaining traction at the statehouse after getting Democratic sponsors in both the Assembly and Senate. “Indigenous People’s Day reimagines Columbus Day and changes a celebration of colonialism into an opportunity to reveal historical tru...

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