Sunday,
February 18, 2007
"Little
The
ANNOTICO Report
Though neighborhood is small, it's big on dining
and shopping
They chatted in
Italian, laughed a great deal and didn't seem in any hurry to go anywhere.
From the doorway
behind them wafted delectable scents of grilling sausage and frying peppers and
onions. Next door, the candy-stripe pole of the barber shop turned slowly; both
chairs were occupied.
It might be
startling to hear that this scene, right out of
A
Little Italy district here? It's true. And this neighborhood is as richly
ethnic as
"It was a
quaint little community," said Danny Moceri,
general manager of Filippi's Pizza Grotto, the oldest
Italian business in the neighborhood, begun by his grandparents as a grocery
store in 1950. "From the bay up, it was all Italians and Portuguese. It
was so much like
The idyll was
shattered in the late 1950s and early 1960s when
Families began
moving out. Businesses closed. And the neighborhood descended into blight.
A rebound began
15 years ago, however. Antiques stores and furniture boutiques moved in. Former
fisherman's cottages were turned into shops or offices. Restaurants opened and
cordoned off parts of the sidewalks for outdoor seating. High-rise condos began
to sprout, this being prime real estate on the north edge of downtown.
Now a revitalized
Little Italy is one of the most popular hangouts in the city, both day and
night, as the parking crunch will attest.
Much of the
neighborhood's appeal derives from its authenticity. The city didn't completely
evacuate the neighborhood before redeveloping it. So amid the cafes and art
galleries are radiator repair shops, dry cleaners and little grocery stores
selling homemade pasta. Where cottages haven't been torn down for high-rises,
morning glories engulf walls and fences, and citrus trees flourish.
The sounds,
meanwhile, are enchanting: a train whistle, the chimes of Our Lady of the
The Little Italy
of today is a sliver of what it once was. It lies along
In this clutch of
easily walkable blocks, a visitor will find eclectic
shopping and will be in no danger of going hungry.
Step into Filippi's (
For
nontraditional Italian fare, try Sogno DiVino (
In the morning,
one of the most popular gathering spots is Caffe
Italia (
But dining
options aren't culturally monolithic... there is also Pacific Northwest,
Japanese, English, and
The shopping in
Little Italy, meanwhile, is first-rate.
A charming
enclave for getting started is the Fir Street Cottages, a row of former homes
just off
At Architectural
Salvage (
India Street
Antiques (
Mixture (
While strolling
in Little Italy, you can't miss the many colorful murals painted on the sides
of buildings, some of them depicting tuna fishermen at work or memories of the
neighborhood or
WHEN
YOU GO
WHERE TO STAY
Two moderately
priced options:
La Pensione Hotel (606 W. Date St.; 1-800-232-4683;
www.lapensionehotel.com), a European-style guesthouse in the heart of the
district. Rooms are small; $80 per night for bookings made by phone or e-mail.
Rooms at the rear catch breezes off the harbor.
The Little Italy Inn (
RESOURCES
Little
San Diego
Convention & Visitors Bureau, www.sdcvb.org.
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