Little Italy and the San Gennaro Festival

Thoughts on the neighborhood

"Feast of San Gennaro
Oil on canvas
30 x 36 inches

Tomorrow begins the annual Feast of San Gennaro in what is left of Little Italy in lower Manhattan. I was in the neighborhood this past weekend walking around and noticing the changes, as usual. Had a nice dinner with a friend at an old-style Italian family run restaurant, Forlini's on Baxter Street. I remember the Sidney Lumet television series "100 Centre Street" using this restaurant often when filming scenes of the lawyers and judges meeting and eating when court was not in session. The food is fine and I liked the homey atmosphere, the attentive waiters and the friendly owner, meeting each guest as they arrived.

Walking northward we were in NOLITA, a neighborhood filled with swank shops and chic boutiques, many of them empty of buyers with lonely looking salespeople inside. This sign in a window says it all.