A century ago, Lindo and Maria Borgatti packed their bags in Bologna, Italy, and sailed over the Atlantic in pursuit of a new life in the United States.
With them, they took Maria Borgatti’s family recipes, which would serve as the groundwork for the small family business they eventually opened on Nov. 28, 1935 on 187th Street in the Bronx — Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles.
Across the street at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, their son George was having his wedding.
Decades later, both the church and Borgatti’s are still very much so up and running — in fact, on Friday, Oct. 27, they were included in a guided tour that Italian diplomat Fabrizio Di Michele, the consul general of Italy in New York, took alongside Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Alyssa Tucker, executive director of the Belmont Business Improvement District (BID), through the Bronx’s Little Italy.
Di Michele, who was born in Palermo in 1969, came to the U.S. and was named consul general in 2021.
A stroll through the Bronx’s Little Italy — arguably the most authentic of the city’s Little Italies — will not only allow you to savor a wide variety of Italian flavors but also give you a taste of the neighborhood’s rich history.
Peter J. Madonia, chairman of the Belmont BID, described Bronx’s Little Italy as a neighborhood “showcasing some of New York City’s most authentic Italian bakeries, pastry shops, fish markets, delis, and artisan merchants, many of which have been owned and operated by the same families that founded them nearly a century ago, or longer.”
One such century-old establishment on Di Michele’s route was Madonia Bakery, founded in 1918 by Belmont BID chairman Peter J. Madonia’s grandfather, Mario Madonia, another Italian immigrant. He operated the bakery with his wife Rose, who went into labor while only 6 months pregnant after a car crashed through the window of the bakery. And thus Peter Madonia — father of Peter J. Madonia — was born.
After Mario Madonia retired, Peter Madonia took over. Peter Madonia’s other son, also named Mario, who would take over after his father retired, was killed due to a car crash — in the same neighborhood where his father was born as a result of one. The bakery, however, has continued on within the family as it is now operated by Peter Madonia’s nephew Daniel and partners. And Peter was even there for the 100th anniversary of the business in 2018.
A block away from Madonia Bakery, Di Michele also visited Egidio Pastry Shop, opened in 1912 by Italian immigrant Don Pasquale Egidio. Alongside selling Italian pastries, Egidio would read illiterate neighbors letters that they received from their families, according to the New York Post.
The pastry shop is so ingrained in the fabric of the Bronx and greater New York community that if you ever happen to pick up a copy of the New Yorker from Oct. 29, 2018, you’ll find that the cover art, named “Arthur Avenue,” is of an Egidio Pastry Shop worker consumed in wrapping up a box of pastries.
While Egidio set up shop, Jacob and Morris Teitel, brothers and Jewish immigrants from Austria, arrived at Ellis Island. They made their way up to the Bronx to live among the predominantly Italian neighborhood around Arthur Avenue — although some Jewish merchants resided there too — and opened the Teitel Brothers Wholesale Retail and Grocery Company in 1915.
According to the New York Times, despite the landlord warning that if the Italians knew the Teitels were Jewish, no one would shop at the store, Jacob Teitel still installed a Star of David mosaic at its entrance. The star would also serve as a tribute to his family in Europe who couldn’t make it out safely. Now, the third generation of the surviving Teitels operate the bustling store — and the star is still there.
Today, there is also a growing Albanian and Mexican community in the Bronx’s Little Italy. At Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, there is a corner dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the first Bronx restaurant with a full Albanian menu, Çka Ka Qellu, sits on Arthur Avenue.
“Every time I come to Arthur Avenue, I can breathe Italian traditions, flavors, and smells. It is incredible to see how generations of Italians have kept their traditional commerce in this area while mixing and sharing with other communities,” said Di Michele.
Other stops on Di Michele’s itinerary were Mike’s Deli — the founder (Mike Greco) of which posthumously had a street renamed after him — Marie’s Coffee, Cerini Coffee & Gifts and Mario’s Restaurant, all on Arthur Avenue.
It seems that in the Little Italy of the Bronx, time comes to a stop, or time folds into itself, and the past and the present simultaneously inhabit the same spaces with equal vibrance and vigor.
The souls behind all the establishments above still inhabit the same streets that Di Michele, Gibson and Tucker walked through on that Friday, keeping the heart of the Bronx’s Little Italy beating.
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