Arthur Avenue Wanderings, Day 1

As you may know, for the last couple of years I've worked at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. St. Barnabas is sits on the edge of the Belmont section of the Bronx, near one end of Arthur Avenue. Arthur Avenue is pretty famous for being the heart of the "Little Italy" of the Bronx, and unlike its Manhattan counterpart it is actually still a proper neighborhood and not a strip of bad, overpriced restaurants and souvenir shops. After working spitting distance from this little gem for 2 plus years it seemed like it was finally time to really start formally exploring and thought I would share my impressions and some pictures with you, my wonderful readers. 

I decided to start my exploration with the Arthur Avenue Market, an indoor market dating back to the LaGuardia administration. I had wandered in there before but didn't really spend a lot of time so this was an opportunity to go a little more in depth. When you walk in the first thing you see is a cigar maker. It's pretty cool to watch them hand rolling cigars from these big piles of loose tobacco. There are actually several cigar shops in the neighborhood. I need to explore a little more about the history of this but I suspect it comes from the influx of Dominican immigrants into the Bronx. Speaking of other immigrant groups, in addition to the many Italian shops in the neighborhood, a number of Albanian shops have opened up. You have to love that about New York!

Next up is the flower shop which also sells plants and lots of vegetable seeds as well. Delving further into the market there's a produce vendor and a shop that sells lots of prepared Italian foods. The really fun part starts with the butcher shop. They have a pretty standard selection of steaks, chops, and poultry, but they also have an amazing selection of sausages as well as a number of items I've not seen anywhere else. The beef feet were particularly interesting as I had never seen beef feet that weren't still attached to the cow. 

Wandering further  you come to Mike's Deli, which sells a great selection of salami, prosciutto, mortadella, and other cold cuts as well as cheese, prepared dishes, and sandwiches. Speaking of sandwiches I had the Hillary Clinton, Which was salami, smoked mozzarella, dried tomatoes, and peppers. It was excellent and one of these days I'm going to have to go back and try some of the others. 

Across from the deli is an olive and pickle vendor and all the way in the back is an excellent pizza place that specializes in Sicilian pies, which is a little unusual in New York. I recent went to a meeting where they had ordered lunch for us from this place and it was excellent pizza. Probably not L and B level (I have to finally try that place next time I'm out in Gravesend, Brooklyn) but really good! On the way out there's also a pastry shop. It looked good, but there's about 8000 places vying for the best cannoli crown and I already managed to find a favorite on a previous pastry expedition. I'm planning on dedicating a later post to the joys of cannoli so stay tuned. Goodnight for now.