As the storied restaurants of Arthur Avenue reopen, expanding their patio seating and raising umbrellas to block the summer sun, visitors can expect a surprise.
Starting in mid-July, the Bronx’s Little Italy will close off three blocks of Arthur Avenue, so that visitors can relax and enjoy open-air dining. The new weekend “piazza” will start on Thursday evenings and last through Sunday.
After months of closure and uncertainty, local business owners are excited about the new plan.
“Even if everything went back to normal tomorrow, would people enjoy this? I think they would,” said Peter Madonia, owner of a legendary Sicilian-American bakery, in an interview with Gothamist. “We’re expanding our own vision to something we never thought about before. In a crisis, there is sometimes opportunity, and there’s an opportunity to create a real piazza in the middle of the Bronx that never existed before.”
And where there’s an opportunity, there might be a new tradition for this neighborhood with restaurants more than 100-years old.