Italian Neighborhoods and Italian Food

Between 1876 and 1924, over four and a half million Italians arrived in the United States. As large numbers of Italians began to settle in America, they began to establish enclaves where they felt safe to live. These communities, often referred to as “Little Italys,” would be a mix of small businesses, bakeries, taverns and men and women selling breads and fruits from push-carts.

Today, the descendants of those early Italian immigrants number nearly 16 million, according to the U.S. census of 2000. You can still find distinctive Italian neighborhoods in many U.S. cities where Italian bakeries, produce markets, and restaurants thrive. As the decades rolled on, foods that were once considered ethnic are now mainstream on American tables – foods like pasta, olive oil, zucchini and broccoli. The brilliant red Italian chicory, radicchio, expanded from Italian restaurants only to bistros and upscale restaurants in the 1970s. It is now included in mixed green salads at McDonalds. 

• Providence
• San Diego

Providence, Rhode Island

The Federal Hill Neighborhood

Radicchio Strudel Reflects Cuisine of Italian Jews

The historic neighborhood of Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island became the center of one of the most densely populated and largest Italian settlements in the nation, in the early 1900s. In 1885, there were only a few hundred Italian-born residents in Providence. By 1930, twenty percent of the city’s population was of Italian extraction. At the turn of the century, Atwells Avenue became the center of...

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San Diego, California

Little Italy – San Diego, California

Shrimp Carpaccio with Radicchio Vegetable Salad is
New Take on Classic Italian Dish

Little Italy in San Diego has been a stable ethnic business and residential community since the 1920s. The area today represents downtown San Diego’s oldest continuous neighborhood business district. At one time, more than 6,000 Italian families lived in Little Italy and toiled to develop San Diego into the center of the world tuna industry.

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