Under these tents, Central New Yorkers celebrated Festa Italiana.
Even the name sounds delicious.
Festa Italiana. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?
Well, sure, downtown Syracuse has its share of festivals that declare their devotion to the culinary. The Crawfish Festival is named after the bright red mud bug dug so much down New Orleans way, and in May, Clinton Square welcomed folks who didn’t hesitate biting their heads off and sucking in their declared, albeit acquired, tastiness. Taste of Syracuse has filled the blocks surrounding Clinton Square for years now with booth after booth selling the food of local places and national chains who operate locally in sample-sized portions for sample-sized prices. Lines are long, and eaters are enthusiastic. Music spices both of those events, and people have a fine time.
This Italian fest, though, is an event of a different flavor.
So much to consider.
For one, it calls the area across from City Hall hall home, taking over the parking lots across from that castle, erecting a trio of huge white tents under which great stretches of favorite Syracuse-area eateries known for their Italian leanings offer their best dishes, from appetizers to entrees to desserts.
You can smell Festa Italiana for blocks. Just the right amount of garlic, I say.
For three days, from lunch time Friday to dinner time Sunday, citizens and visitors could, if they choose, eat nothing but Utica greens and chicken riggies and canoli.
Funny I should mention those, you say?
Chicken riggies and Utica greens.
The first two dishes are what my dear wife Karen and I purchased Saturday night at Asti’s and brought home in their white keep-hot containers to eat in the warmth of our own house in Eastwood instead of at the tables in the breezy and cool portable cafe.
The Saturday dinner included the greens made to the exacting standards of our neighbors to the city northeast for which it is named. Made correctly, the dish is warm, just-vinegary enough and topped with cheese and crunchy bread crumbs. This were made correctly. The chicken riggies were smothered in vodka sauce with just the right amount of heat. I could have used another hunk or two of chicken breast, though, to accompany the pasta you might call rigatoni, though all in all, I must admit to ending up filled and happy.
One mini cherry cheesecake, two cannoli.
That deliciously filled pastry is what I brought home in a box Friday afternoon from Biscotti Cafe & Gelateria, a pair of them in fact, with a cherry-topped mini cheesecake to boot, for Karen to enjoy as my gift for a hard week at the office.
I will cop to taking bites of both. Heavenly.
Both of those places, whose permanent home is on North Salina Street, the business cornerstone of what Syracuse calls Little Italy, were chosen because of their track record of pleasing us previously.
But we were sure to slowly walk the tents, eye-shop the sign menus, and take in the free aromas.
Peppino’s. Avicolli’s. Basil Leaf. Utica Pizza Company & Cafe Canoli. Mama C’s & Mama B’s. Tony’s Family Restaurant. Twin Trees Too. Vince’s Gourmet.
One of everything?
They offered meatballs and eggplant and pizza and panini and heroes and subs and sandwiches and ravioli and braciola and sausage and scallops and shrimp and lobster and chicken and steak and Italian wedding soup. Yes, wings, too. I almost missed the pizza fritte and ice cream trucks while walking back to the car parked in front of the Erie Canal Museum.
Hungry yet?
Central New Yorkers stand to cheer native Syracusan Jimmy Cavallo after his Saturday set.
Yes, by the way, there was music, too, and a big main stage to host it.
Syracuse native Jimmy Cavallo brought his saxophone and his timeless voice back home from Florida to show once again how he helped pioneered rock ‘n’ roll in the the day, playing sets Saturday and Sunday with a bunch of cool cats who remain in Syracuse, his old band the Houserockers. Cavallo, who appeared in Alan Freed’s famous music documentary movie “Rock, Rock, Rock” and brought the first all-white band to play in Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater, is 87, proud of it, and vibrant as can be. When he sings “New York, New York,” he means it.
I ran into Karen’s co-workers and asked them not to ruin the surprise that I’d purchased her pastries when they returned to the office. They didn’t.
Have you ever attended a festival with wall-to-wall ethnic food to tease your senses, and if so, what did you choose to eat? What’s your favorite Italian food, and how much of it can you eat? You have 10 bucks to spend at Festa Italiana. Do you spend it on an appetizer, entree or dessert, and why?
Mark Bialczak 
wow–yum! Love events like this, though haven’t been to any so ethnically specific. Would love to. Drooling, it all looks amazing. And very cool that you bought pastry on the sly.
To answer your last question, how come I only get $10? haha. It would have to be a dessert.
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oh, and speaking of food fests. My fun finds from the day at the park (with music 🙂 ) at the bourbon fest: Bourbon ball ice cream, bourbon-soaked cake, smoked bourbon sugar (bought a canister, didn’t sample), bourbon caramel corn, bourbon fudge. At a restaurant, had a brownie sundae topped with bourbon chocolate sauce. Bought bourbon brittle at a distillery. So yes, it’s all about the sweets.
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Bourbon fudge sounds pretty darn interesting. Bourbon caramel corn I bet is awesome. Bourbon brittle, too. You did it up, Liz, you and Larry. Way to go.
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Because I am a man on a budget, that’s why, LIz! Good question, Ms. Quizzical. 🙂
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I’m miles away from my hometown but every Labor Day weekend I sigh just a little because I can’t attend La Festa Italiana http://lafestaitaliana.org/ . I sooooo miss the food, the people, the food, the music, the food, the walking, the food! My favorite thing was for our family to purchase a cannoli from every vendor who made them, have a tasting, then crown a winner! Now I’m craving cannoli…
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The cannoli queen of your famila is: YOU, Angie Mc. I should freeze-dry ship you some out there in Arizona. Do any bakeries attempt them?
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If only!!! Two attempt, & I mean attempt, here. Carrabas & a mom & pop shop, good but not great. I’m spoiled 🙂
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Ahhhh, Mark, that is something we are only just learning how to do down South. Awesome Italian food. Huge improvements in the twenty years since we first moved here when we would go to an Italian restaurant and be served white rolls and margarine. This was an adjustment after Boston’s North End as you can imagine.
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Yes, I could imagine, Barbara. Believe it or not, it took great pizza a bit to travel from Brooklyn to Long Island with us in the mid-60s, too, recalls the man who was 5 years old and missing great pizza already back then.
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My mouth is watering, since Italian is my favorite kind of food! I like Chinese, I enjoy Indian, I like French and other choices, too, but my all time favorite is Italian! You got some delicious sounding (smelling) food I bet! So sweet to buy pastries for the wife, and had the best time listening to the music. I love the saxophone and I am sure the vocals were great! The photo of Karen’s coworkers is so nice, Mark!
I plan to get a walleye fish sandwich from this elderly couple that go fishing in the Great Lakes for their walleye, I will get fair fries and a funnel cake, too, at Saturday night’s last day at the fair. The band playing is called, “Phil Dirt and the Dozers.” You may look them up but they remind me in their song choices of the Beach Boys, but they play a lot of great ‘oldies,’ while getting us up dancing!
Our festivals end in October, with the Circleville (Ohio) Pumpkin Festival! I like our end of September, Oktoberfest in Columbus. Oh, I like German food…
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I do not like to eat fish of that sort, only shellfish, so you’re on your own for that sort of fest food, Robin. But fries and funnel cake, for sure. I love the band name Phil Dirt and the Dozers, and that’s no pushover. Dance t the oldies right through to the Pumpkin Fest and Oktoberfest and German food fest!
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Sound and looks good. Glad you guys enjoyed.
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Fun time in a different spot downtown, Kim. I like that about it.
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Mmmm, Mark, I’m hungry just reading this. You have no idea HOW hungry I am right now. Check out my latest post to see just how and why I’m so hungry. My neighbor blew his apartment up about 10 to 12 days ago, Not sure any more how long it was. Just happy to be alive.
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Oh my, Angie. That is not good. At all. It would leave me starving, too!
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WOW! I have GOT to go there next year! That looks delicious! Ten bucks to spend? I buy that cherry cheesecake! Why? Sometimes Italian food can be too garlicky then I have to throw it away. 😦 But when it’s just right, it’s most delicious! 😀
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No problem with garlic with the cherry cheesecake, my friend! Yum. Come on up, Rachel.
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Suddenly my sugar free fudge bar is quite bland and sad.
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My treat bought for me this week by my dear wife Karen is Edy’s No Sugar Added butter pecan ice cream, Colleen and I give it three thumbs up. I borrowed one of Ellie B’s paws, that’s how darn good this ice cream is. I suggest you find it out your way if you are nibbling on sugar free fudge bars.
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I shall give it a go! Husband LOVES butter pecan! 🙂 Thank you for the suggestion!
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It sort of tastes like egg nog to me. And I love egg nog, Colleen.
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Been many a year since I had egg nog…..but I trust you. 🙂
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Just hand over the bread and no one gets hurt, Chum…
Proud of you for only taking a bite of those yummy looking sweets. Cheesecake without the fruit for me.
That food crawl was fun, but now I’m even more hungry.
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My sugars have been so good lately, Aud, can’t go off on a binge and spoil it. Bread is worse for the old glucose meter for me, by the way, only it takes longer to register. Starches and carbs, oh my, have to watch those, too. Now about that food crawl. Shake and bake chicken tonight here. Yum!
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For me, pastry please.
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Any kind you prefer, Dora, they had them at Festa Italiana! I must admit I spent time gazing. Gazing. Gazing. In the pastry coolers.
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omg!!!! and there was music too?? i am so, so hungry and jealous right now, mark ) if i had 10 to spend it would all be on pasta and bready things – omg!!!
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Another vote on bready things. Interesting. Yes, there was plenty of bread. In Syracuse, the best Italian bread comes from Columbus Bakery, hands down. Round loaves. Fresh. Warm. Delish. OMG indeed, Beth.
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I spend the money on an entree, because nothing is as good as homemade, fresh lasagna.
I love the Greek Festival that comes to town in the spring, we go crazy there. We also love the Vegetarian Festival. Not that it is all one type of ethnic food, but they have a good variety for people to try: Ethiopian, Indian, Thai, etc.
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Both sound very good to me, Jeanette. Yum. Lasagna is a good choice for this one, too. 🙂
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I vote entree to get the real deal taste of an ethnic dish. Man, your city is always having a party! I have to google braciola now.
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It is pretty impressive that I get to go to events like this so often, Kerbey. One of my best friends in junior high, Chris Vento, his mother made the best braciola. Melted in my mouth. Ummmmm.
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It looks like a stuffed meatloaf. It sounds like Chachi’s last name.
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And still Joanie loved Chachi! Oh, but they never said she reciprocated, we were just left to assume that, weren’t we, Kerbey?
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Indeed, he did not love her.
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Mark, you just have the best festivals there in Syracuse. It seems there’s always something going on. The food looks and sounds scrumptious!
Diana xo
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It was delicious food, Diana. I wish I could have eaten more! I love Ba-Da-Bing Shrimp, for instance, breaded with a huge hot kick to it. Ummmm.
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I vote for a lasagna entree for my $10. That’ll fill me up. Very tasty post Mark. I love reading about all the options available and it is so nice to see a vibrant downtown core with festivals celebrating food and music. The cannoli looks delicious. I bet Karen wa pleasantly surprised with her treat (even if someone had been nibbling at it already – Ha!)
Makes me hungry Mark – well written and great pictures. Wish I could have been there. Yum!
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Paul! My bites on the desserts only came AFTER they were offered to my by my dear wife Karen. You make my laugh, my friend, to think I’d rat-style nibble on the pastry before offering the gift box!
Some day I hope you are feeling well enough to come visit us here in Syracuse. We’ll time it for one of our festivals. Deal?
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Deal! Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you stole part of her cannoli. ha! Great Post Mark.
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