Mulberry Street, the heart of Manhattan’s Little Italy, is the epicenter of Italian American culinary imagination. Its iconic logo awnings, natty white tablecloths and seen-it-all servers set the scene. Pasta and red sauce, workingman’s dishes elevated through skill, love and respect for the old ways, made it the neighborhood that launched a 1,000 candles in wicker-clad Chianti bottles. Few have burned so brightly as Mulberry Italian Ristorante.

Off the main drag in Lackawanna but central to the hearts of red sauce lovers and Little Italy superfans alike, the former neighborhood bar has drawn Guy Fieri’s television coronation, the patronage of politicians and Buffalo Bills, and the sort of relentless patronage that makes parking dicey for blocks.