Description: During a winter visit to the Big Apple, we decided to look for an authentic Italian place to grab a caffe. What better place to look (we thought) than Little Italy. So, after researching a bit, we decided to try out La Bella Ferrara (different place than the popular Ferrrara Cafe on Grand Street). Located on the border of Chinatown and Little Italy, the reviews looked good and since we'd recently moved back from Italy- we suspected that we'd feel a bit at home in Little Italy.
That didn't end up totally being the case. First of all, Little Italy is nothing like Italy, and doesn't even have any of the same culture feel as the more Northern Italy that we were used to. I'm sure it's more similar to the southern parts as most of the immigrants that set up this neighborhood were from Naples, Calabria, and Sicily. Nevertheless, we at least thought we could maybe get a warm cup of joe on the very cold day that it was.
We were excited to find Ferrara, and when we walked in a long glass case full of pastries welcomed us. Peaking at the selection, we saw cannoli, fruit tarts, donuts, tiramisu and more. The space was tight inside, but homey. The brick wall on the right is full of photos of the more famous guests throughout the years.
One of the reasons we looked forward to visiting Little Italy was to hopefully strike up an Italian conversation, but the only language we heard spoken at this cafe was Spanish and Russian. It seemed like all the workers that we saw were immigrants from other countries other than Italy.
We sat down and were handed the menu (a photo menu, I might add...which to me is never a good sign) and ended up getting a couple cappuccini and cannoli. I can only saw that the cappuccino was on par - nothing too special, but fine. But the cannoli was quite tasty and the prices were so-so.
• 108 Mulberry St (between Canal St & Hester St)
• (212) 966-7867
• Open 9am - 1am
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