Boston's North End

[Rosie DeQuattro]

The northern bulge of the city of Boston, the "North End," is the Italian district--some think of it as Boston's Italian Epcot.  Almost every restaurant is Italian.  The street signs are in Italian.  The bakeries are all Italian (connoli, taralli, biscotti, etc.).  Even the pharmacy is Italian. 

 

But real people, even non-Italians, do live there, and despite the demolition of the  "other" Green Monster (the rusted, green steel overhead highway system that ran right through the city, cutting off the North End from the rest of Boston), which allowed the North end to bleed into the city proper, it stubbornly retains it’s Italian-ness, no matter how theme-park like it may seem at first blush.  But it’s a struggle.

 

"Hey baby, did you pick up that case of liquor I sent you?" Stephen shouts to the guy across the street.  The guy across the street yells down to Bobby passing by:  "Hey Bobby, I see you've gotten some color back in your face."  Someone else is gesturing and shouting out directions to a lady who looks lost:  "Go down to the end of Fleet to North Bennett--you can't miss it!" 

 

According to Stephen, owner of a green grocer on Commercial St. called the Golden Goose, the North End is still the nicest neighborhood to live in in Boston.  “It's friendly and it’s the safest place in the city.  When a car breaks down in the neighborhood, we keep jumper cables here for anyone to use to get the car started.  If someone in the neighborhood is going to be away, they might leave us their keys in case the UPS guy delivers a package-- it's the way the whole area is."

 

Patrice who moved to the North End in 1982 had this to say:  “We used to say that you never had to leave the North End unless you had to go to a CVS.  I wanted a safe place to live in the city. Here, I felt that I could just walk everywhere and know everybody.  It’s like a small town contained inside a city. When you live in the North End, you always go to the green grocer, you always go to the butcher or you go to the [one and only] fish market, Mercato del Mare--everyone in the North End goes there. Parziale Bakeryon Prince St. makes a 7-grain bread on Friday and Saturday which is really, really good, but you’ve got to get there early because they sell out.  Boschetto’s on Salem St. makes little spuckies, [a type of sandwich roll].  Maria Merola at Maria’s Pastryon Cross St. has been making zeppole and sfogliatelle for the past 30 years the same way she made them in her native Avellino, Italy.  In the summer time, a neighbor will drop off a couple of liters of homemade wine, from grapes grown in his garden right next door; or a basket of his tomatoes. Having fresh basil or celery is just a matter of going next door to pick it.  I use the T [Boston’s public transport] in the winter, or Zip Car; and on weekends I rent a car to go out of town.”

 

A litany of businesses have come and gone in the North End—butcher shops, restaurants, fish markets.  In some cases there’s no succession plan--no one to take over the business when the old owner dies.  Stephen who is in his 60s says his son isn’t interested so he’ll pass on his business to one of his young managers.

 

Peter who owns one of the few remaining butcher shops, D & R Meat Market (since 1968!), says there’s no one to take over his business—“no one has the butcher skills anymore.  Old school Italians wanted their meat cut right in front of them.  They knew precisely what they wanted and how much of it, so I cut everything to order.  Today’s customers are 22 –38 years old, single professionals or married with few children.  They don’t even cook; they want prepared food they can heat up.  They come in and don’t know what to order.  Tough to market to the young crowd.”

 

The owner of the one remaining fish market says, “Single people are the ones shopping now in the North End, with small or no families.   It’s a hustle.  The money is not flying through the door.  We have to work at it.  We’re on Facebook, we give shucking classes, we have a newsletter.  We stay open until 8:00 PM to accommodate our younger working customers.  You’ve got to change with the times.”

 

That’s how the "disneyfication" took place—how the North End got such a bad rap.  The old timers, the old customer base, died off. They were replaced by young professionals who still want the nostalgia but not the grit.  Supply and demand—nothing new about that.

 

But wait a minute—there is a bright spot here.  Patrice said she’s noticed that there are more and more kids in the neighborhood.  Another resident, Michelle, says “you wouldn’t believe the number of baby carriages I see in this neighborhood!”   She said she sees more non-Italian families now--families who want to live and multiply in a safe, friendly neighborhood. “Also, we see a lot of empty-nesters coming back—people who have had their big houses in the suburbs, the kids are moving out and they’re bored and wonder what are they doing in the suburbs.”  The North End, she said, is where they want to grow old.