By JUSTIN MCCALLUM

For Bronxites and beyond, traveling to the Bronx’s Little Italy is often compared to a trek to the old country. It’s a destination. The smell of seasoned Italian sausage, blended with sights of Italian-named eateries and singers greeting its customers make the area a must-see.

And behind a push to attract visitors to the destination is the Belmont Business Improvement District, the agency tasked to promote the epicenter for Italian fare.  Unlike most BIDs, which usually promote merchandise stores, Belmont’s marquee draw is its neighborhood, intertwined with tradition and Italian fare.  After all, its woven into their sales pitch.  

“…[W]hat strikes people about this neighborhood is you have two bakeries almost side by side, five or six pastry shops within a stone’s throw, and a lot of Italian delis and restaurants all on the same street,” said Philip Marino, executive director of the Belmont BID.

Since managing the agency in the fall, Marino was shocked to find that the historically Italian neighborhood has seen shifting demographics, yet still embodying the cultural enclave that’s characterized the neighborhood. What was predominantly Italian in the 1800s is now mostly Albanian and Mexican, said BID chairman Frank Franz.   

Keeping With Tradition
Still, the character of the neighborhood has remained largely Italian.  Marino pointed out that many non-Italian merchants consciously reinforce neighborhood tradition by serving Italian food. “To even my surprise, a lot of the merchants here, although they might run Italian stores, are not all Italian,” he said. “For example, Teitel Brothers has been here nearly a hundred years, and they’re Jewish.”

Gilbert Teitel, the Jewish owner of the 99-year-old family-run shop, keeps the shopping experience authentic for customers by importing directly from Italy. “We do what we can to help the neighborhood and keep customs going, and we’re doing well in spite of it,” Teitel said.

Orazio Carciotto, a native Italian who moved to the Bronx 27 years ago, keeps his shop Casa Della Mozzarella at the corner of East 187th Street and Arthur Avenue as genuine as possible. “[T]his neighborhood feels like you’re in Italy,” Carciotto said.  “I really try to make my place feel and look like home.”

Carciotto has had success in business, churning out 3,000 pounds of hand-made mozzarella weekly. His philosophy that “a few little secrets make a big difference” has garnered his eatery a Zagat rating, and a partnership with The New York Yankees.

Name Recognition
The BID has also been striking the right chord, given the increasing number of patrons and revenue coming into Belmont. Marino credits happy customers and merchants to new advertising campaigns and special events such as Ferragosto, a religious-themed festival during the late summer.

“Because Arthur Avenue is famous on its own, people come here on their own; people come with their kids, and they pass that down and bring their kids. It’s really traditional,” said Alyssa Tucker, the BID’s assistant director. “But we advertise, we post to our website and Facebook which has nearly 50,000 followers. We also just started Twitter not too long ago, so we reach out that way,” she added.

The Belmont Stakes
Despite their heavy community engagement and partnerships with nearby institutions such as The New York Botanical Garden and Bronx Zoo, the Belmont BID has higher ambitions. “Our budget is split between advertising, events, sanitation that cleans the streets, and some security, and believe me $340,000 is not nearly enough to do everything that business owners want to do,” Marino said. He has pressed for a bocce ball tournament, car show, and a hotel to settle in the community.

Franz said that for 20 years the BID has tried convincing hoteliers to invest in Belmont.  “…There was a lot of interest before the recession,” Franz said.  “We’re looking for something significant, but that doesn’t mean 40 stories, we don’t like tall buildings around here.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.