New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [26]
Compared to SoHo, NoLIta is the place to hit for unique boutiques and quieter cafés. The area feels significantly more like a neighborhood where locals eat, shop, and live. A great place to stop for break or picnic is DeSalvio Playground at the corner of Spring and Mulberry streets, where kids play on red, white, and green equipment (colors in honor of the Italian flag) and people play chess on stone game tables.
Just east of Broadway, find the remains of what once was a thriving, lively community of Italian Americans: the tangle of streets that make up Little Italy. The few nostalgic blocks surrounding Mulberry Street between NoLIta and ultrabusy Canal Street are still a cheerful salute to all things Italian, with red-green-and-white street decorations on permanent display and specialty grocers and cannelloni makers dishing up delights. And every September, Mulberry Street becomes the giant Feast of San Gennaro, a crowded 11-day festival that sizzles with the smell of sausages and onions (don’t miss John Fasullo’s braciole, an iconic sandwich filled with fillet of pork roasted over a coal pit and topped with peppers and onions). This is by far the city’s most extensive annual street fair.
PLANNING
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME
If you’re coming to shop in SoHo (south of Houston) and NoLIta (north of Little Italy), plan to arrive after 11 am, as most shops open late and stay open until early evening. If art is your thing, avoid Sunday, because most galleries are closed. SoHo, with national chains lining its section of Broadway, is almost always a madhouse (unless it’s raining), but weekdays are somewhat less frenetic. NoLIta is calmer and less crowded, with fewer chains and more boutiques. Little Italy represents a very small area nowadays—just four blocks—having lost ground to a growing Chinatown. You can see it all in a half hour, or spend an afternoon exploring the grocers and the stores hawking touristy Italian-theme T-shirts, bumper stickers, and assorted tchotchkes, capped off with a meal at one of Mulberry Street’s kitschy Italian-American restaurants or its touted newcomer, Torrisi Italian Specialties. If you come in mid-September during the San Gennaro festival (a huge street fair in honor of the patron saint of Naples) you—along with thousands of others—can easily spend an entire day and night exploring the many food and souvenir booths and playing games of chance.
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GETTING HERE AND AROUND
SoHo is roughly bounded by Houston Street, Canal Street, 6th Avenue, and Lafayette Street.
To the east, NoLIta grows daily but lies pretty much between Houston, the Bowery, Kenmare, and Lafayette.
Plenty of subways service the area; take the 6 or A, C, E to Spring Street; the R to Prince Street; or the B, D, F, to Broadway-Lafayette.
FODOR’S CHOICE
King of Greene Street
St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral
TOP EXPERIENCES
Browsing boutiques in SoHo and NoLIta
Architecture-ogling along Greene Street
Engage in some gallery hopping
Grazing at Little Italy’s Grand Street grocers
Doing brunch at Balthazar
SOHO: TOP TOURING EXPERIENCES
SHOP ’TIL YOU DROP
The stretch of Broadway between Houston and Broome streets is a flurry of pedestrian traffic with retail giants like H&M, Banana Republic, and Victoria’s Secret, as well as local city favorites such as Scoop NYC (532 Broadway | 212/925–2266) and Pearl River Mart (477 Broadway | 212/431–4770).
To the west or east in SoHo are boutiques from established contemporary designers such as Catherine Malandrino, Kate Spade, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Anja Hindmarch, and Vivienne Tam, just to name a few. If the crowds of fashionistas and tourists start to become too much, head a few blocks over to West Broadway—also lined with mostly chain stores—where the action is less interesting but the sidewalk is also less trafficked.
In NoLIta, on Elizabeth, Mulberry, and Mott streets, mix with models and magazine editors at one-off shops by young designers just starting to make their