Here are stores that sell the delicacies of Central Europe and pastry shops where fat, but stylishly turned-out women gorge on rich chocolate sweetmeats washed down by the white wines of Tokay, the Rhine and Moselle.
This part of town was once one of New York's finest. Riverside Drive is one of the grand avenues of the world, with a view across the broad Hudson toward the palisades of New Jersey.
The castle of Charles M. Schwab has been demolished. The fine tree-lined West End Avenue, and upper Broadway with its grassy center lane, all are frayed and frowzy.
Now a score of small and medium-sized clubs purvey what purports to be the food and entertainment of Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Prague and Sofia.
But it mostly boils down to a gypsy fiddle and a bowl of goulash.
Not long ago, the center of Italian life was Mulberry Street, near the historic Five Points and police headquarters. Here one went in search of such Italian delicacies as pizza and ravioli.
In the years between the two World Wars, older immigrants gradually became Americanized. Italians, last of the large racial groups before the Puerto Ricans came to colonize, soon became one of the most populous and most dominant minorities.
Little Italys took root all over the five boroughs. Italian restaurants blossomed forth in every part of town, to run the Chinese chop suey parlors a close race for the trade of those who like exotic foods.
The sons and daughters of Italy went into show business, trade and politics, and their domination extended to vice, crime and gangsterism, but also to the sciences and fine arts.