Don’t let the freckles fool you, a complete 1/2 of A-Tooch is Italian. It’s a pretty big influence in what she cooks, likes to eat and maybe subconsciously, the people she dates and temper she has (?)
Every year for as long as I can remember we’ve made what I call the pilgrimage to mecca — a trip to the feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy. You may remember in past years reading about my escapades with J-Tooch and K-Tooch, all the while following J’s historical lessons of Little Italy and how Chinatown is now swallowing the former neighborhood up. Yep. They are New Yorkers for life.
When I read this year that San Gennaro would be spiced up with debuts from Dewey Dufresne’s BYGGYZ and sandwiches from Torrisi, I hopped down there early on. Below are just a few highlights of what we ate. Believe me, we were not going to leave San Gennaro with just two sandwiches. Lovely photography compliments of @miro009 (you knew they were too good to be mine, right?)
The Byggyz Beef. No explanation needed. Just, delish. Wylie sighting at his dad’s stand didn’t hurt the cause either.
The Pork Tonata from The Breslin, tasty but with a strong anchovy flavor in the sauce. BF also got a cucumber cooler here that looked extremely refreshing, but I passed since I’m not one for cucumber at all.
…and of course, some gelato from La Cremeria stand. I was kinda bummed when I saw the Zabaione flavor on the menu then heard they were sold out 
but the bacio was to die for. I felt so guilty at the end that we managed to make it through San Gennaro with about zero Italian food, so I forced a good heaping portion of gelato in despite being pretty full.
San Gennaro is on through Sept. 25 and definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area. If you do go, make sure to steer clear of the junky street fair food, paella and baklava (what the heck kind of Italian food is that?!) Instead, try some raw bar seafood and a good sfogliatelle from Ferrara’s. Belissimo!
One Comment
This was a much needed change of pace from the typical San Gennaro staples…. sausage & peppers and zeppoles. I really liked the BYGGYZ beef sandwich. Although I usually never leave little Italy without cannoli’s from Ferrara’s.