San Gennaro festival

[john b]

We're planning on dinner somewhere downtown (hopefully Babbo or Hearth) on a Saturday in September, and I just found out that it will be during San Gennaro. We'll have the afternoon, before dinner, to bounce around the city.

My friends who live in Manhattan laugh at the idea of going anywhere near Mulberry St. during the festival. "It's packed with people, you can't even move...mediocre food...cheesy carnival games...etc."

I can deal with crowds, but will I be wasting my time looking for good food?

Will the festival have any effect on the demand for reservations at the better downtown restaurants?

[Nathan]

I lived very near there (on Elizabeth)...it is certainly not a culinary occasion -- it's the same vendors as every other street festival in NY combined with the worst stereotypes of places adjoining the city populating the crowd....no, it won't have any impact on reservations at anywhere decent....trust me, the San Gennaro crowd won't be going to Hearth or Babbo.

btw, Babbo is a fair ways away

Edited August 17, 2004 by Nathan (log)

[JennyUptown]

Hate it-hate it-hate it. It's nothing like it should be.

Like Nathan said, it's vendors selling everything from corn on the cob to smoothies. Not very "Italian."

[Artichoke]

I wholeheartedly agree with Jenny and Nathan. The last time I went was about seven or eight years ago when I was dating a girl from London. She had heard about it and wanted to go.

While it was amusing for a girl from across the Pond, I found it miserable. It is the same food that is present at any of the many street fairs throught the City at various times during the Spring and Summer. What Italian food was represented was as poor as what is served in the overwhelming majority of Little Italy's restaurants.

[john b]

So it seems like my NYC friends were not being their usual cynical selves...

Am I correct in assuming that we should avoid Little Italy (I had though about checking out Di Paolo's) altogether??

[Cpalms]

skip little italy, except di paulo, its truly a gem, when you walk down the street to di paulo you won't think your in little italy.....if you want that little italy expierence go to authur avenue in the bronx (great after a day game at yankee stadium)...do a search, there are many members here that know far more about it than me. i'm sure they must have a feast up there, and I bet it is what you are looking for.

[Bux]

I think there's some kind of energy at the festival that has some appeal, at least until you actually get there. On some level, I have to respect the interest people have in going there if only because I've gone out of my way for less or worse in foreign countries.

If you're on a diet, you won't waste you time looking for good food. Personally, a lump of dough that's been deep fried and powdered with sugar is never all bad, but I might feel guilty walking into Babbo smelling like the festival. It's not just that the food is mediocre, but it's more expensive than what you can get in a restaurant of the same or better quality. I'm not sure the festival even brings much business to the restaurants on the street. It has no effect on business at restaurants as far away as Babbo or Hearth. If people had a reservation at a decent restaurant, they would have something better to do and not go to the fair. As it's lost the last of its ethnic character, it's really become just another anonymous tacky street fair. I think it's finally even begun to shrink a bit, although it's doubled in size since I've known it--which is about forty years.

[NJRay]

It was great several years ago, but today it seems like your typical carnival/fair food fare. Prices seem to be very high the last few years. Sausage, Brajoile, Steak Sandwiches, various seafood and pasta, zeppolis, fried calazones, lol, actually let em take back that typical carnival food fare, there is some good stuf going on,now that I think about it, but nothing that will knock your socks off.

Crowded crowded crowded, avoid Friday and Saturday if you can but if you must it is a cool experience.

[albie]

It's lost its way many years ago, and is a cariacature of what it was. It seems that itinerant purveyors of overpriced, mediocre food vastly outnumber the locals, and the food plays to the lowest stereotypes of what Americans consider to be ``Italian." For me, it's only DiPalo, Alleva and maybe Ferrara's that offer any reason to go there; the Bronx's Arthur Avenue, Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens and 18th Avenue, and even parts of Greenwich Village (west around Bleecker/Cornelia and east around First Avenue) are more deserving of the description.

[mjr_inthegardens]

If you want to see a real street festival and are in NY in September, check out the Atlantic Antic, last saturday in September, Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn.

-mjr

[Pan]

I can deal with crowds, but will I be wasting my time looking for good food?

Yes, you certainly will be wasting your time. Do I love the San Gennaro festival on Mulberry or hate it? Neither, I suppose. I just feel totally indifferent toward it. I've seen the Macy's 4th of July fireworks many times but find them exciting every time, partly because there's always something new in the show. By contrast, I've seen the San Gennaro festival a few times and now consider it a nullity. That said, I can still enjoy watching people try to press down hard enough to get a ball to hit a bell...

[oakapple]

So it seems like my NYC friends were not being their usual cynical selves...

Am I correct in assuming that we should avoid Little Italy (I had though about checking out Di Paolo's) altogether??

I would not go to Little Italy when all the tents and street vendors are set up for the San Gennaro Festival. But Little Italy itself is practically always a delight for visitors—whatever we may think of it. I may be the only person on eGullet who finds it delightful. The words "Little Italy" seem to cause the foodie community to break out into hives. It's true that no restaurant there is among the city's best, but the average visitor will find most of them competent, and there is an electricity to the atmosphere there that many visitors enjoy. The Festival is not the best time to experience it.

[tomweir]

You're not alone. I lived my first couple of years in NYC in Little Italy and the best time to experience it is on a Sunday morning. Sleepy, newspapers and coffee, church bells and just the locals.

[mpav]

I went once. That was plenty. The food I tried was not even good for street food.

The crowds made it very unpleasant. That being said, there are lots of people who love it.

[heidih]

My mind went to the street festival of San Gennaro in NYC where the sausage and peppers sandwiches are legendary. Perhaps our NYC members will post a pic in September.

Edited June 27, 2023 by heidih (log)

[rotuts]

I think its the chronic heat and humidity 

 

that made them do it :

 

the Holy Trinity

 

should have been a Duet.

[KennethT]

9 hours ago, heidih said:

My mind went to the street festival of San Gennaro in NYC where the sausage and peppers sandwiches are legendary. Perhaps our NYC members will post a pic in September.

Most NYers I know avoid San Gennaro like the plague....

[weinoo]

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

Most NYers I know avoid San Gennaro like the plague....

 

Back when I was driving a cab, I stopped at San Gennaro (this is the 70s, mind you) to pick up a, yes, sausage and pepper hero (and we could basically park our cabs anywhere back in those days - if it got boosted, I didn't own it, so I really didn't care).

 

So while walking around, I decide to throw a few ping pong balls into fish bowls and end up with a goldfish in water, in a plastic bag. Thinking it wouldn't be a great traveling companion in the cab, I offed it on an unsuspecting kid...I'm sure the parents were happy.