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Bronx

Arthur Avenue (Belmont)

The Bronx's Little Italy, still measured in fresh ravioli and hanging provolone.

Photo: Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ask a New Yorker where to find the real Little Italy and the honest ones point north, to the blocks around Arthur Avenue and East 187th Street in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Manhattan's version became a backdrop decades ago. This one still works: salumi hanging in the windows, bread trucks double-parked, and shopkeepers who learned the trade from their grandfathers.

The food shopping here is the attraction, and it is serious. Teitel Brothers has sold olive oil, cheese, and dried pasta from its corner since 1915. Borgatti's has cut egg noodles to order on East 187th since 1935 — you choose the width, they turn the crank. Inside the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, opened in 1940 under Mayor La Guardia to get the pushcarts off the street, mozzarella is pulled by hand a few steps from a working cigar roller.

Come hungry and plan to carry things home. A proper visit runs from espresso to a sit-down lunch to a trunk full of cheese, sausage, and bread, with cannoli filled to order somewhere in the middle. The avenue is busiest on Saturdays and before every major holiday, when the lines themselves become part of the theater.

Salumi and provolone hanging in shop windows

Pasta cut to order the same way since the 1930s

A 1940 market hall built to house the pushcarts

Saturday crowds carrying bread under both arms

Local notes

Teitel Brothers

A grocery on the corner of Arthur Avenue and East 186th Street since 1915, founded by Jewish immigrant brothers and still family-run. Wheels of parmesan, tins of olive oil stacked to the ceiling, and prosciutto hanging overhead. The crowd at the counter knows exactly what it came for.

Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles

On East 187th Street since 1935, making fresh pasta and nothing else: ravioli, lasagna sheets, manicotti, and egg noodles cut to the width you ask for while you watch. Three generations of the Borgatti family have run the machine. Buy more than you planned.

Arthur Avenue Retail Market

The indoor market hall opened in 1940 when Mayor La Guardia moved the neighborhood's pushcart vendors under one roof. Inside: hand-pulled mozzarella, butchers, produce stands, a sandwich counter, and cigars rolled by hand near the door. The whole street's character, concentrated.

Through the lens

Shop windows and hanging goods photograph best in the flat light of late morning, before the glass picks up glare. Saturday gives you the crowds and the theater; weekday mornings give you the shopkeepers. Inside the Retail Market, ask before shooting the counters — most vendors say yes and then hand you something to taste.

Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 13, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.

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