Peasant’s always-satisfying pasta dishes have kept this restaurant on Little Italy’s best-of lists for years. These days, we head straight for their newly-opened wine room, a candle-lit space in the restaurant’s old wine cellar. Much of the menu is served straight from Peasant’s open-fire hearth, with hits including lamb merguez, smoked linguine with clams and pizza with sopressata and ‘nduja.
Little Italy, once a sprawling immigrant neighborhood, now technically only occupies three blocks of Mulberry Street, but the history and reach of its red sauce joints can be found in nearby Nolita, Soho and Chinatown.
When its streets are crowded with tourists, Little Italy can feel a little overwhelming. Which storefront has the best cannoli, and where can you really get the best slice of pizza in New York? We’ve rounded up the absolute best restaurants in Little Italy so you can find sandwiches piled high with capicola, heaping plates of old-world pasta and the best bakeries for cannoli and pignolis.
Whether you’re in the neighborhood for The Feast of San Gennaro or the nearby New Museum, this is your no-fail guide to Little Italy dining.
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