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Golden Gate Fancy Fruits has long been one of our favorite hidden gems in New York City, featured in our book Secret Brooklyn. It was a gorgeous summer day when we first met the proprietor of the Marine Park shop, John Cortese, who was 92 years old at the time and clearly a New York City treasure. Cortese is a World War II veteran who served in the...

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I grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with my father telling me tales of his childhood in nearby Borough Park. Only a few miles away from each other, the neighborhoods—and our stories—were worlds apart. Yet in many ways, they were very similar. My father grew up in a brick house surrounded by family during the Depression. I grew up in a brick house surr...

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Yesterday the IABF along with Italian Enclaves donated and delivered thousands of surgical mask and gloves to several Brooklyn hospitals, police precincts, Fire Houses, EMT’s and nursing homes. Proceeds for this donation came from our recent GoFundMe campaign. Thanks to our good friend Ray Guarini for his help in initiating this campaign and delive...

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Because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought life to a near standstill in New York City and caused an untold number of people to lose their jobs, tenants in the building did not need to pay April rent, it read. “STAY SAFE, HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS & WASH YOUR HANDS!!!” the landlord, Mario Salerno, wrote on the signs, which he posted at all of...

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After the Fresh Pond Road Street Festival was the only one not to immediately be approved at Community Board 5 of five street festival applications this year, the celebration of Italian-American heritage finally got the green light at the board’s meeting on March 11.  The street fair, managed by Federazione Italo-Americana di Brooklyn and Queens si...

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Looking to chow down on some Italian fare? A new spot has you covered. Located at 548 Fourth Ave. in Gowanus, the newcomer is called Pulia Ristorante. This is the fifth location of the international chain of Apulian restaurant/cafes, which also has outposts in London, the Netherlands, Italy and Atlantic City. The chain was founded in 2012 with the...

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Cristina Fontanelli in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Two" comes to Feinstein's/54 below! Musical Memories by a "Girl" from Brooklyn! Wednesday, April 22 At 7 P.M. FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Cristina Fontanelli www.cristinafontanelli.com in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Two". Part of the Back by Popular Demand Series (third appea...

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I’m on set with first-generation Italian-American Rossella Rago and her 86-year-old maternal grandmother, Romana Sciddurlo, to talk about the evolution of her popular online show Cooking with Nonna. By “set,” I mean the humble basement kitchen in Nonna Romana’s house in Bensonhurst, where Rago spent countless hours during her childhood watching her...

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Wednesday evening, HRH Princess Beatrice of Bourbon Two Sicilies was warmly welcomed by members of the Federazione delle Associazioni della Campania USA in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Escorted by the US Delegation of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, Her Royal Highness visited the San Cono Society and Our Lady of the Snow Society c...

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It’s Sunday morning, and I’m standing on a corner in Bay Ridge, a not-trendy section of Brooklyn, eating panelle from a brown paper bag with the chef Jordan Frosolone. We greedily tear off pieces of the fried chickpea fritters, a street food specialty from Sicily—4,000 miles away yet somehow so close. We squeeze lemon over them. We savor them. And...

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