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Executive chef Raffaele Spadavecchia specializes in pasta at Brooklyn’s Scottadito Osteria Toscana restaurant, but, like other chefs who competed on Food Network’s Chopped TV show, he was handed incongrous ingredients and told, figuratively, to make wine out of water. Spadavecchia made it to the show’s final round after creating an appetizer with u...

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In the late 1930s, Pete Panto was a longshoreman on the Brooklyn waterfront. Working conditions on the Brooklyn docks were horrid, with endemic problems such as the “shape-up” hiring system (where men waited daily to be chosen to work), mandatory salary kickbacks, extortion, and high rates of work-related injuries. In addition, the local union, the...

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If you could describe Salvatore Merante with just one word, what word would that be? Italian, dapper, mustache and sausage are four words that come to mind. Let’s examine why these words will forever be associated with Salvatore Merante, a member of the ISDA Brookline Lodge, who passed away in October 2021 at the age of 90. ITALIAN Sal was born in...

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Attention, Sebastian Maniscalco fans! The comedian is coming to Manhattan, Newark, and Brooklyn in March for his “Nobody Does This” tour. Tickets are on sale now for the following shows: - March 21, 2022 at 7 p.m. at Madison Square Garden, N.Y., N.Y. : Buy tickets here. - March 23, 2022 at 7 p.m. at Prudential Center, Newark, N.J.: Buy tickets here...

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When Chef Paul D'Avino first started searching the five boroughs for a space to open his own restaurant, he envisioned opening an izakaya, or the Japanese version of a neighborhood bar. That was, until he found the storefront at 272 Third Ave. The corner space, it turns out, was across the street from where his great-grandfather had settled when he...

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A week before Christmas, when the New York sun is perpetually in your eyes, I was standing in a crowd at the corner of Henry & DeGraw Streets, an intersection that was about to be dedicated to the memory of Mary Crisalli Sansone. While we squinted into the distance waiting for Mayor DeBlasio to show up, it occurred to me that when Mary Sansone was...

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I was part of the Great Migration. No, not from the rural South to the auto plants of Detroit. Not from the Oklahoma Dustbowl to California. Not even from Southern Italy to Little Italy. I was part of the Italian-American migration from Brooklyn to Staten Island to New Jersey. While in Brooklyn, I lived on the fringes of Dyker Heights, so I can sta...

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There is no shortage of fantastic bakeries and coffee shops in North Brooklyn, but a new one serving up traditional Italian pastries deserves recognition. Recently opening on December 20th in North Williamsburg, Bianco Latte (109 Bedford Ave.) is an all-day Italian cafe inspired by Venetian flavors located steps from McCarren Park.  It’s no surpris...

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Actor Steve Buscemi is the latest New Yorker to get a key to the city. Before turning to acting, the Brooklyn-born Buscemi was a New York City firefighter in the early 1980s. The “Boardwalk Empire” star was given the key to New York during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press conference Tuesday. “This is such an honor to be here with you today to receive t...

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NYPD officers, officials, and local residents passed out gifts Wednesday to nearly 200 children who otherwise may not have received a holiday present this year. New York City Council Member Robert Cornegy, Jr., was joined by dozens of members of the NYPD and Brooklyn native and business owner Salvatore Stile at Stephen Decatur Middle School. The gy...

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