Close

New Haven has plenty to offer, including incredible restaurants. One of the city’s staples recently got a long-awaited facelift. Liberato and Guiseppina Dell’Amura opened Libby’s Italian Pastry Shop on Wooster Street way back in 1922. It’s still family-owned, four generations strong now, and ready to celebrate 100 years. “We keep everything the sam...

638

The replacement for the Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park has hit a roadblock, with objections to its size and design as well as questions on compliance with historic district standards. A vote on the proposed four-figure family statue meant to honor Italian-American immigrants to Wooster Square has been put off until Jan. 12 as the project se...

593

Thanksgiving, that quintessential American holiday, was not easily understood by the original group of Italian settlers who came from a place that had no comparable celebration. Easter and Christmas were easily transferable; everyone celebrated here in America just as they had in their native towns and villages. But Thanksgiving was connected to Am...

699

I always wondered how it came to be that there were five churches within the geographic area of Wooster Square. One of them, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (now St. Paul and St. James), on the corner of Chapel and Olive streets, was actually a vestige from the time when the area was predominantly Yankee and Protestant. It is a beautiful stone church v...

451

A charitable organization made up of Italian-American women has sued the city, seeking to bring back the Christopher Columbus statue to Wooster Square Park. The American Italian Women for Greater New Haven claim in the suit that the city, through Mayor Justin Elicker and the Board of Parks Commissioners, among others, violated their rights to due p...

589

Instead of a Columbus Day parade, a concert complete with Italian-American song and food was held recently in North Haven. Organizers said the pandemic made it impractical to hold a large parade as in years prior to 2020. Another hurdle the newly formed Greater New Haven Italian American Heritage Committee faced was the controversy following the re...

526

You could forgive restaurateur Moe Gad if he had second thoughts about opening his latest venture, Villa Lulu. The decision to open the restaurant in a College Street space formerly occupied by the Samurai Japanese Restaurant was made before pandemic hit the state, sending a chill through the economy. But Gad, who in 2004 had bet on New Haven’s res...

667

Yale University says the decades-old debate over the authenticity of its controversial Vinland Map has been settled: It's a fake. The map was donated to the school in 1965, presented as a purported 15th-century depiction of the New World, which would have made it the earliest. At the time, scholars at Yale and other institutions considered it evide...

831

There won’t be a Columbus Day parade again this year, but the region’s Italian Americans plan to celebrate their rich heritage in a new way. “We had to kind of scale back, but we’re praying and hoping” to revive the parade in 2022, said Laura Florio Luzzi, chairwoman of the parade committee. “The town of East Haven is very excited about us coming.”...

414

New Haven’s newest Italian offering opened last week in downtown.  Villa Lulu, the product of seasoned restaurateur Moe Gad, opened on Wednesday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside of the restaurant’s location at 230 College St. The modern Italian eatery, which boasts a diverse menu of pastas, salads and classic Italian entrees, is Gad’s second re...

569