Arthur Avenue
The Bronx's Italian food street in Belmont — an indoor retail market, century-old bakeries, butchers and cheese shops — and the reason New Yorkers tell visitors to skip Manhattan's Little Italy.
- What it costs
- Free to walk. Market stalls and bakeries are cheap; sit-down restaurants are mid-range and cash is welcome everywhere.
- Best in
- Any season
- Where
- Arthur Avenue between E 184th Street and Crescent Avenue, Bronx, NY 10458
- Official site
- arthuravenuebronx.com
Why here and not Little Italy
Manhattan's Little Italy is three blocks of restaurants that exist for tourists. Belmont is a neighborhood where Italian-American families still shop, and the difference is immediate — you'll hear Italian spoken, the butcher counters have queues of people buying dinner, and prices are what locals will pay.
It has also become genuinely mixed over the last thirty years, with Albanian and Mexican businesses alongside the Italian ones, which makes the eating better rather than worse.
Start at the Retail Market
The Arthur Avenue Retail Market at 2344 Arthur Avenue is an indoor market hall built in the 1940s — Fiorello La Guardia's answer to pushcart congestion — and it is the right place to begin.
Inside: cheese counters, a butcher, produce, a cigar roller who has been there for decades, and a handful of counters doing sandwiches and hot food. You can eat very well here for very little, standing up.
Closed Sundays. So is a good deal of the street. Come on a Saturday morning for the full version.
What to actually buy
- Fresh mozzarella, made that morning, from one of the salumerias. Ask for it still warm.
- Bread from one of the century-old bakeries — the loaves are the point, not the pastries.
- A hero from a deli counter, built in front of you.
- Cannoli filled to order. If they hand you one that was filled hours ago, you're in the wrong shop.
- Pasta, fresh, sold by weight, from a shop that makes it on site.
Bring cash. Several of the best counters still prefer it, and some are cash-only.
Timing
Saturday late morning is the peak — everything open, everything busy, in the best way. Sunday is quiet and much is shut. Weekday afternoons are calm and pleasant.
Allow two hours to browse and eat, more if you sit down.
Combine it with the Bronx Zoo or the Botanical Garden, both fifteen minutes away, and eat here afterwards rather than at either.
Getting there
The B, D or 4 to Fordham Road, then the Bx12 bus east, or a fifteen-minute walk. About 35 minutes from Midtown.
The 2 or 5 to Pelham Parkway, then the Bx12 west, works from the east side.
Metro-North's Harlem line to Fordham station is the fastest option from Grand Central at around 18 minutes, then a ten-minute walk south.
Getting around once you're there
The street is flat and the sidewalks are wide. The Retail Market is step-free at the Arthur Avenue entrance. Several of the older shops and restaurants have a step at the door and tight interiors.