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Photos: The Feast Of San Gennaro Is Back! Here's What To Eat
By
Scott Lynch
Published Sep 17, 2021
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By
Scott Lynch
Published Sep 17, 2021
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Like all NYC traditions that can get ridiculously crowded, the San Gennaro Feast was canceled last year due to the pandemic, the first time since 1926 anyone can ever remember that happening. But now through September 26th, the Feast is back in Little Italy with dozens of food vendors lining Mulberry Street from Houston to Canal, as well as all the usual sucker games, cigar-rolling spots, touristy tchotchke sellers, and carnival rides.
As has become custom, in addition to classic San Gennaro fare like zeppoles, bracciole, sausage & peppers, torrone, raw clams, fried Oreos, and plenty of booze, several of the neighborhood's newer establishments are getting in on the action this year with special feast-only dishes.
Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich, from Cafe Belle
Noelle Scala's Cafe Belle, one of the city's best, most underhyped bakeries, always serves up something special for San Gennaro, and this year is no exception with an amazing Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich. Parked in front of the shop is her cousin Nicole Monecalvo's food truck Your Sister's Balls, serving a menu of meatball dishes.
La Churreria, also located near Houston, is celebrating San Gennaro's return with a savory Churro Dog stuffed with Basque-style, pleasantly spicy Chistorra sausage and loaded with onions. And there are now two first-rate slice joints on Mulberry Street: Manero's down near Canal, and Noam Grossman's Upside Pizza on the corner of Spring Street, the latter of which is running San Gennaro's first-ever Pizza Eating Competition next Friday, September 24th, at 1 p.m.
Fried Rainbow Cookies used to be a bit of novelty at the Feast, but I counted at least three vendors selling these beauties on Thursday. The Cannoli Cronut dudes are holding it down once again near Spring, several Chicharrones and/or Arepas spots have muscled in nicely to the mix, the fried-pocket-pizza place Mr. Panzerotto has a booth at San Gennaro for the first time, and though the legendary Vinny Peanuts passed away from Covid in 2020, Vinny's Nut House is back near Grand Street, run now by his nephew Danny Fratta.
There are a bunch of special events over the course of the Feast as well, usually involving shoving way too much food, way too fast, into your mouth. The frankly kind of gross Cannoli Eating Competition, for example, is happening on Friday at 2 p.m., and there's a Meatball Eating Contest run by Alleva Dairy, "America's Oldest Cheese Shop," on Sunday the 26th at 1 p.m.
The Grand Procession is on Saturday the 25th, starting at 2 p.m., and will feature floats, "celebrities" and the Giglio Band, which should be quite a spectacle.
The crowd seemed thinner on opening day than I remember from recent, pre-COVID years, and the introduction of so many curbside dining rooms to Mulberry Street since 2020 gives the Feast a more disjointed feel than usual—you can go almost half a block between San Gennaro booths at certain points, because local restaurants have already staked out the space.
San Gennaro himself was displaced by luxury housing a couple of years ago from his longtime home in the back courtyard of The Most Precious Blood Church, but they wheeled him out onto the street on opening day to bless all of the vendors.
You'll find the Feast of San Gennaro on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, running from Canal to East Houston streets. The Feast runs through Sunday, September 26th, and is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until midnight Friday and Saturday.
Tagged
fried dough
little italy
san gennaro
Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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