Italian American Heritage Month is at the center of this weekend’s conversation on In Focus. JoDee Kenney welcomed in Lianna Tatman, executive director, Centro Culturale Italiano di Buffalo, established in 2010 to promote Italian culture in Western New York. At its building on Delaware Avenue, CCI Buffalo offers Italian language and cooking classes...
READ MOREEvery so often, I head out to grab a lunch with my parents. They always ask me to take them to a new place, so that they can discover different types of food options around town. The funny thing is that my mom and dad both have completely different preferences when it comes to what they like to eat. My dad is more meat and potatoes, and my mom like...
READ MOREA big stretch of Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo is filled with red, white and green for the annual Italian Heritage Festival that kicked off Friday. Hertel is closed from Delaware Avenue to Virgil for the celebration of food and fun. “I just love the energy. You can tell everyone is just enjoying themselves,” declared Gabriella of Buffalo. As I too...
READ MOREThe daughter of an Italian saint is set to visit Western New York this weekend. Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, will be in town from Thursday until Sunday. She will make numerous visits to local churches during her stay. A mass in her honor will be held at Buffalo’s St. Joseph Cathedral at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. St....
READ MOREStep inside the new Dalfonso's Italian Imports in the heart of Buffalo's Five Points neighborhood and get swept away in a celebration of food, and family. "I want you to feel comfortable like you are walking into a place that has been here for 50 years," said Jeffrey Dalfonso, the owner and operator, "I guess the inspiration really was my family's...
READ MOREWhen Robert Biondolillo was 3 months old, he emigrated from Montemaggiore, Italy, to the United States. "They brought him in a basket," said his wife, Michele. "I hear the story every day." When he was 13, he began working at the Biondolillo family restaurant Touch of Italy in the City of Tonawanda – an Italian eatery that has been a neighborhood...
READ MOREThe Five Points neighborhood continues to grow in ways that few people could have imagined. Following recent news of the reopening of Remedy House, there is now another exciting development underway. The Five Points neighborhood continues to grow in ways that few people could have imagined. Following recent news of the reopening of Remedy House, th...
READ MOREAs late as the 1940s, newspaper stories written about Buffalo’s Italian population were painted with wild strokes of exotic color. “Off in a section of the city where the rays of the sun, on a bright day, glisten down upon dilapidated housetops and seek their way into narrow streets and by-ways with which the place abounds, are colonized a people i...
READ MOREHe seemed invincible. And for a while he was. Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1916, John Basilone was the sixth of 10 children brought into the world by Salvatore Basilone, an Italian immigrant, and his first–generation Italian–American wife, Dora. A typical Catholic boy of his age, the future Marine was educated by nuns, good at boxing, and not inte...
READ MOREOn Rhode Island Street in Buffalo, you will find Dalfonso's Italian Imports, a shop specializing in Italian products. Owner and operator Jeffrey Dalfonso said he's excited to bring this to the Five Points neighborhood. Dalfonso said this is not necessarily a sit-down restaurant, but there will be tables inside and outside in the shop's garden space...
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