Tuesday, January 26, 2010

An Old Menu from a Bygone Little Neighborhood


La Focacceria, aka Vinnie's, closed nearly five years ago.  Today, while doing a little post-holiday cleaning, I found this menu under my desk.  There was always a bunch of menus on the counter at Vinnie's, although I never saw anyone consult one.  The specials were written on erasable wall boards, and the spellings were eccentric in the extreme.  I usually ordered the sfinciune, a cheeseless onion-and-anchovy Sicilian pizza, that appeared neither on the menu nor on the wall; nor did the cheesy, meaty rice balls.  Both appeared randomly from the kitchen and were deposited on the counter, near where spleen was frying for the vesteddi. 



There was once a little Little Italy along First Avenue, from around St. Mark's to East 14th Street.  All gone.  There are tons of pizzerias, but they are slick and shiny whole-pie joints, none of whose clients drove in from Staten Island to pick up a couple of pies for a confirmation party.  I miss Vinnie's and I miss Vinnie, even though  he once made a grab at my left boob outside Key Food.  Hell, he could have a grab at the right one  if I could just have once more slice of sficiune.

5 comments:

EV Grieve said...

Oh, wow... Sadly, I had forgotten about La Focacceria... We always had a delicious meal here....

Barbara L. Hanson said...

My best estimate is that I ate there well over five hundred times, usually on the way to or from the farmer's market at Union Square.

Lisa said...

In 1980 Focacceris was on the east side of First Avenue between either 12th and 13th or 13th and 14th, they moved to the St. Mark's location in the mid-1980s. For some reason I ate in the original space a lot, but never went into the new one, no idea why. In a strange coincidence, not 3 days ago I was trying to remember the name of this place, thanks for jogging my brain!

Barbara L. Hanson said...

I remember the old location well.
Glad I could help jog your memory! Mine needs a jog most days...

Melanie said...

His Sicilian anchovy breadcrumb pizza was the best. I enjoyed many meals and conversations with him over the years.

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I'm a ninth-generation Brooklyn native living in Manhattan.