The neighborhood where Sylvester Stallone was born, and where author Mario Puzzo wrote the Best Selling Novel "The Godfather" as well as the screenplay to the movie.
Manganaro's Grosseria Italiana, commonly referred to as Manganaro's, was an Italian market and deli on Ninth Avenue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1893 and operated for 119 years, helping to introduce the hero sandwich to Americans. The family closed the business and put the property up for sale in 2012.
The business was founded in 1893 by Ernest Petrucci as a wine and spirits store, Petrucci's Wines & Brandies, that also sold groceries. Its location at 488 Ninth Avenue near 37th Street was on a stretch of the avenue that remained lined with exotic food stores for decades. After the enactment of Prohibition in the U.S. in 1919, Petrucci's nephew James Manganaro, an immigrant from Naples, took over the store in the 1920s and changed the name; in 1927 he was able to buy the building.Manganaro may have invented the hero sandwich, and played a role in introducing it to Americans.
On his death in 1953, Manganaro's passed to his brother Louis and sister Nina Manganaro Dell'Orto and their spouses; in 1955, with a publicity agent's help, they invented the six-foot "Hero-Boy" sandwich, which was successful enough for one of Dell'Orto's four sons to go on the original version of the TV quiz show I've Got a Secret, and for the family to open a sandwich shop next door at 492–494 Ninth Avenue the following year, while continuing to operate a deli and lunch counter in the rear of the grocery store.
In 1962, Louis Manganaro retired and two of his four nephews took over the grocery store and the other two the sandwich shop, Manganaro's Hero-Boy, and the businesses were separated.
Sal Dell'Orto, who bought out his brother's half ownership of the grocery store, and James Dell'Orto, who bought out his brother's half ownership of the sandwich shop, fell out over rights to the "Manganaro's Hero-Boy" name, trademarked by the sandwich shop in 1969, and advertising for party sandwich telephone hotlines, which led to two separate court cases. The business' neon sign installed in the early 1930s, which became blinking in the 1960s, was turned off in 2000 so that Manganaro's Hero-Boy could not benefit from it.The grocery store was repeatedly found at fault over the hotline and was ordered to pay damages to the sandwich shop, and the financial drain plus waning popularity, some of it due to the declining neighborhood, led to the decision to sell the building and close. This was first announced early in 2011, but the building was withdrawn from the market; the business then closed in late February 2012.
Anthony Bourdain featured the store, on the episode title "Disappering Manhattan" on No Reservations TV Show.
Lanza’s was an Italian restaurant in the East Village, Manhattan. It was opened in 1904 by Sicilian immigrant Michael Lanza in a tenement built in 1871. Lanza was rumored to have been a chef for Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. They closed in 2015. Eater reported it officially closed in 2017 after seizure by a marshal for non-payment of taxes. It is also said to have closed in 2016. The former restaurant's murals, stained glass, and sign were retained by Joe and Pat's, a pizzeria that opened at the location in 2018.
They were known to be a favorite of Lucky Luciano, Carmine “Lilo” Galante and Joseph “Socks” Lanza.
LANZA'S
SINCE 1904
The DINING ROOM
Sadly, LANZA'S Closed in 2017
"STILL GOING STRONG"
JOHN'S of 12th STREET
CUCINA ITALIANA
Since 1908
Thankfully, JOHN'S is open (2024) and going as strong as ever, and will be around for many more years to come.
At one point in his long restaurant career, author Daniel Bellino worked as a waiter at JOHN'S for 7 years.
At the time, he worked as a cook in Italian Restaurants in New York. He worked 2 jobs for 7 years, cooking at various restaurants full-time, while working as a waiter / bartender at John's for 3 nights a week.
Joshua Ozersky (August 22, 1967 – May 4, 2015) was an American food writer and historian. He first came to prominence as a founding editor of New York Magazine's food blog, Grub Street, for which he received a James Beard Foundation Award (with co-editor Daniel Maurer) in 2008. He was the author of several books, including The Hamburger: A History -Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, and Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change, 1968–1978 . He was Editor-at-Large for Esquire, writing about food and restaurants. He also wrote frequently for The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, and The New York Observer, among other places. Although read primarily as a food writer, he has said in numerous public appearances that he disliked "food writing" as such, and that his strongest influences were G. K. Chesterton, Thomas Babington Macaulay and A. J. Liebling.
Ozersky was born in Miami in 1967. He moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1979 when his father, the painter David Ozersky, got a job as a stage technician in the first of the area's casino-hotels, Resorts International. He attended Atlantic City High School and Rutgers University. His mother, Anita Ozersky, died suddenly when he was 14 years of age. Of his interest in food, he has said in interviews, "I was a friendless child, and a solitary and celibate teenager ... my father and I only spoke about movies and food, and food far more than movies. He was a great gastronome and taught me to self-medicate my loneliness with steaks and sausages."[4] He later attended New York University's School of Journalism and started work towards a doctoral degree at the University of Notre Dame, where he eventually received a master's degree in American history.
After graduating from Rutgers University in 1989, Ozersky wrote for several publications on media and cultural history topics, most frequently in Tikkun. The first articles he was paid to write appeared in a short-lived satirical weekly called "The Hoboken Review," based in Hoboken, NJ, where Ozersky lived at the time.[7] Among his earliest works for The Hoboken Review was an article titled, "I like it greasy," in which he celebrates his disdain for overly-health-conscious eating—a recurring theme in his future food writing. From 1990 to 1993 he wrote two weekly columns for the West Side Spirit, a free weekly newspaper in New York City: a semi-humorous "TV Picks" column and a cheap-eats column called "The Impoverished Gourmand" under the name "Casper Gutman." Many consider this guise, which was loosely based on the character from The Maltese Falcon, as a forerunner of "Mr. Cutlets," his later fictive persona. In the mid-1990s, he wrote for Suck.com under the name "The Boob", as well as for Newsday, where he frequently contributed essays on culture and media. His book "Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change" a cultural history of television programming, received a disappointing critical reception. Although his ambition at this time was to establish himself as a public intellectual after the example of his mentors, Neil Postman and Mark Crispin Miller, he eventually turned to food writing full-time with the publication of his 2003 book "Meat Me in Manhattan" 2008's "The Hamburger: A History" was a critical success, receiving positive reviews in publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Economist, The Times, The Observer and Forbes.
Subsequent to "Meat Me in Manhattan"'s publication, Ozersky was a contributing restaurant critic for Newsday (2004–2006), and wrote regularly for the website Slashfood and the New York Law Journal. He became the founding editor of New York Magazine food blog Grub Street,[13] a position he held until 2008, when he moved over to Citysearch as National Restaurant Editor. There he ran a daily food blog based on the model of Grub Street called The Feedbag, along with his regular Citysearch duties.[14] He left in 2009 to start Ozersky.TV, a venture with Eater founder Ben Leventhal, featuring short films about restaurants and cooking, which debuted in July 2010. He wrote the "Taste of America" column for Time from 2010 to 2012. Both Ozersky TV, "Taste of America," and his work in The Wall Street Journal was nominated for James Beard Awards. Essays by Ozersky were also included in "The Best Food Writing" anthologies of 2009, 2012 and 2014.
In 2010, Ozersky was criticized by Robert Sietsema Writing about his wedding in Time without disclosing that the chefs who participated donated the food as wedding gifts. Ozersky defended himself, saying that the chefs involved were among his closest friends, and that the most prominent of them, Michael White, had his daughter in the wedding party as a flower girl.
Ozersky was found and pronounced dead in his Conrad Chicago hotel room on May 4, 2015, while in the city for the James Beard Foundation Awards. Officials said the autopsy reveals he died after suffering a seizure in the hotel shower and drowned.
Ozersky was the founder of Meatopia, a large meat-centric outdoor culinary event, which has been held in New York City for the past ten years. In 2013 Meatopia events were held in London, England and San Antonio, Texas, with more cities planned for 2014. Meatopia held a very small event in 2013 in New York City while focusing the majority of its efforts on the London and Texas events. Each year has had a different theme such as "Slaughter of the Innocent" (baby animals); "Lamb Bam Thank You M'aam" (whole lambs); "City Meat," (NYC 2012) in which the festival was divided up into multiple "neighborhoods" such as Offalwood, Carcass Hill, and Beaktown; and most recently (NYC 2014) The Carnivore's Ball, a celebration of the 10th annual Meatopia which was hosted by Michael Symon. Meatopia has been called "a glorious city of meat" by The Huffington Post[and "a bacchanal of pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey and quail" by The New York Times.
JOSH
Josh Ozersky was one of the Great Food Writers of All-Time. He had a style of writing and chatting on food, that was all his own. There was no-one quite like Josh. The closest to this Giant of Food Writing and pontificating would be the late great Anthony Bourdain. Another Giant. These two men were a great gift to The Food World and its millions of fans. And they both left us far too soon, and millions mourn them.
Josh was not nearly as well know and popular as Anthony, but he was certainly his equal. They both had their own styles, which were both absolutely wonderful, yet different. Hey, they were wo different human beings.
When Josh passed away, he was only 47 years old. Anthony Bourdain was 61 when he passed. It was a tremendous loss and the World Mourned. Tony had millions of fans. The world still mourns Bourdain's passing, and pine for him. Sadly these two giants of human beings (food writers / hosts) are sorely missed, and will always be remembered.
RIP
JOSH OZERSKY on BURGERS
At The SPOTTED PIG New York
OZERSKY on BURGERS
"The Burger is Omnipotent and Irresistible"
"It's the most Single Powerful Force in The Food Universe"
"But, Better Than Filet Mignon cause It Has Flavor"
"A Hamburger is the most Universal Symbol of What it Means to Be
an American"
"To turn away from the Hamburger would be to abrogate everything
that makes us American. Or Human for that Matter"
"HAMBURGERIZE" !!!
"This is Like BURGER BLING. This is like a Status Symbol of Conspicuous Consumption"
(On Eating a BLACK LABEL BURGER)
"The Worse Things are, The More People Need a Great Cheap Food"
