Back in the day (mid-60's) my Italian-American GF took me to my first San Gennero feast. Had my first real cannoli there. Her father was in the "Import-Export" business in Queens (go figure). Boy could she cook; my little sisters always begged her to come over to our house to cook some fantastic dishes. Mangia! Great video. Thanks.
My great grandparents came here from Italy. They came through Ellis Island and moved to West Virginia to work in the coal mines eventually. I’ve always loved New York for some reason. Been there once in the 90 s.
Just subscribed to your channel after discovering you on the ActionKid's RUclips channel.....You definetely know your New York history!! Greetings from Southern California!!
That was a good one Tom! I did not KNOW about the Don Rickles connection to the Joey Gallo shooting .. Always got confused because there was an Umberto's in Bensonhurst at the time as well.
Love your videos. My mom grew up in Little Italy in the early '50s - mid '60s. She's passed on to me some amazing stories. Now she's in Staten Island. Would love for you to do a video of Staten Island one day.
I love your video of Little Italy. I found out about you by watching some videos that you did with Actionkid! You are a great NYC tour guide and a teacher at history!
Thanks for making the best tour videos! Can you please make a video on Bensonhurst, Brooklyn? I'll be traveling there in a few weeks and I'm hoping to learn as much about it as possible before I go!
Hi Tom. Nice videos. You always show the architecture of buildings which is great but don't forget about all of the wrought iron railings etc. The ones in NYC usually are of very high quality and in many cases quite artistic. One of my favorites is the one surrounding the Dakota building. Looks like 2 seahorses with Neptune in the middle of them.
New subscriber here. I found you on Action kids video walking Greenpoint. I hope you continue to Williamsburg like you mentioned. Loved the Little Italy tour even though it's half the size it was when I was a teenager. Keep up the awesome tours! 🇮🇹
The Joe Gallo hit was dramatized in the Scorcese movie "The Irishman", and they recreated the old Umberto's restaurant, looks just like it did back in the day
Fabulous video, like all your videos. I hope one day you make one dedicated to the Empire State Building or the Chrysler building or the 30 rock, and many more, buildings all of them, magnificent, and with a lot of history on their backs it would be great to discover them more thoroughly and from your point of view. (I love architecture ... that's why) .it would be very interesting to know more about its construction and its history, told by you it would be very interesting to watch and learn¡¡¡ Cheers :-) and again, thanks a lot for your GREAT videos¡¡¡¡
Nice background on the Ravenite (now a shoe store) and DaGennero / Umbertos. On you Lincoln Center videos, maybe you can cover the Joe Colombo location.
Just discovered your vids, fantastic job! As an Italian, it saddens me a little knowing places like little Italy are not what they used to be anymore, but as you mentioned it's the americanization process. Love the nostalgic feeling of it though, you can still grasp the vibe here and there, either way representation always hits deep. Great video!!
Awesome video, was waiting for you to mention DeSalvio Playground, across from the Spring Lounge…where Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts hung out in Pope of Greenwich Village
Hi Tom. It was nice to see Little Italy . I've visited there and realize it survives for the tourists and seems like Chinatown is swallowing it. I'm glad to hear that former residents comeback for the festivals. One of my great grandfathers came through Ellis Island. I'm Calabrese on my mother's side. Hopefully, the restaurants are still high quality and not cheapen because of the tourists. It's funny that John Gotti's former headquarters is now a boutique. As I said, even though your family came from Central America, you could be mistaken for being Italian. I made that mistake and I'm sure do many others. The town I live in has a large Italian population and some of them have lived here for a long time. My mother's family first lived in a section of Pittsburgh that was like Little Italy but had totally disappeared because of urban renewal. What is now considered the Little Italy in Pittsburgh is a different neighborhood that also has a festival that attracts a lot of people.
Hola Tom! Muy bueno el video! Te puedo hacer dos consultas? La primera es en qué época me convendría ir a pasear por la ciudad, ya que la vez que fui fue en Marzo y quería saber si seria bueno mediados de Abril principios de Mayo, o fines de Noviembre para el desfile de Macy's, más que nada por el clima. Y segunda pregunta(perdon :P), si hay alguna empresa de autobuses desde JFK hasta Manhattan. Gracias! Saludos desde Argentina!
La mejor temporada para visitar NYC, considerando el clima, es Septiembre o Octubre. Y si hay buses de JFK a Manhattan pero casi no vale la pena porque son compartidos y tomar el subway es super simple del aeropuerto - hay una linea de subway (linea A) que te lleva directo a barrios como Times Square, Distrito Financiero y Greenwich Village.
Always enjoy watching your films. Just another input apropos Umberto's Clam House. One version of the Joey Gallo's killing is that "The Irishman" Frank -----(?) from Philly who grew up in the area of South Philly's Little Italy was the guy who stabbed Gallo. He always used a knife. He was not a mafioso but he spoke Italian and knew his way around the Italian culture. Just another tidbit of gangland life.
Watched the scene of Godfather where he was shot up at the fruit stand. (We were across the street). This was back in early 70s. I was also kicked out of restaurant in little Italy for imitating Italian lyric...”Bah..Fan..Goo”.. who knew? I was only 17 then. Good times.
7:20 my wife and I went to dinner at Da Nico on our first date in 2004 and loved it so much that we decided if we got married to name our first child 'DaNico' after the restaurant.. we found out we were having a girl a few years later and changed the "o" to an "a" and when we wrote it down we realized it spelt 'Danica' and that is her middle name.
The Street Festival in The Godfather II was in honor of San Rocco, not San Gennaro. In New York City (Manhattan), the Feast of San Rocco predates the Feast of San Gennaro. Historically, immigrants from Potenza in the Italian region of Basilicata established the Feast of San Rocco before the Neapolitans established the Feast of San Gennaro. The family of Francis Ford Coppola, the Director of the Godfather films, immigrated to the United States from Basilicata. Hence, the connection to San Rocco.
The Italian-Americans in Boston's North End don't think like the Italian-Americans in New York City. They strive to maintain their neighborhood's historic character and restaurants.
Whoow. you literally look like Ted Bundy, the body language, the voice, everything. I sincerely apologize if I offended you Tom, but i just had to point that out.
You should have more subscribers. You’re fantastic. ✨
Agreed. I have been binging on Tom’s vids. A+.
The seagull running gag honestly made me laugh out loud each time.
Me too! Every damn time, without fail! LOL
Back in the day (mid-60's) my Italian-American GF took me to my first San Gennero feast. Had my first real cannoli there. Her father was in the "Import-Export" business in Queens (go figure). Boy could she cook; my little sisters always begged her to come over to our house to cook some fantastic dishes. Mangia! Great video. Thanks.
James Stark Great story, you hit the jackpot... is she single?!
@@tomdnyc1 Haven't talked to her in about 50 years. Sorry.
It's good to keep traditions alive ,
🎉Viva Lil Italy
My great grandparents came here from Italy. They came through Ellis Island and moved to West Virginia to work in the coal mines eventually. I’ve always loved New York for some reason. Been there once in the 90 s.
Loved this video a lotl I "found" you on ActionKid's videos. You really do know a lot about the city. I will be watching more of your videos for sure.
I’ve seen a lot of tours and read many books on NY history, but this was the most informative of them all! Thanks for the tour.
You are the best at NYC walking tours. I have learned a lot from you. Thank you.
Gary Levine thanks for watching, Gary!
no wonder why you became a lawyer with a memory like this.
cevrim Being a lawyer wasn’t even close to as interesting to me.
Just subscribed to your channel after discovering you on the ActionKid's RUclips channel.....You definetely know your New York history!! Greetings from Southern California!!
mano1971music Thanks! Ken is the best. I’m sure we’ll be doing more vids soon.
Yes, greetings from So Cal.......SFV !
Great tour, we learned a lot about the area!
Crystal S I’m glad because that was my goal!
Man I like your style you could have been my history teacher
Thanks Tom, great video's. Funny and informative...
Very nice , I enjoyed the history
B- A thanks for watching!
We love your video's. Packed with info, amusingly presented, and... easy on the eye! Thank you Tom!
Ha, thank you!
That was a good one Tom! I did not KNOW about the Don Rickles connection to the Joey Gallo shooting .. Always got confused because there was an Umberto's in Bensonhurst at the time as well.
Great information!! thank you
Tom, you’re so hilarious. I’d pay you to be my group’s personal tour guide.
Love your videos. My mom grew up in Little Italy in the early '50s - mid '60s. She's passed on to me some amazing stories. Now she's in Staten Island. Would love for you to do a video of Staten Island one day.
Great video, thank you
Andrew Gurney You’re welcome!
You need your own TV show. you make this stuff really interesting and fun.
Excellent video Tom😊
Great tour!! 👍
Justkate McC. Thanks for watching!
You make it look so easy.. thx Tom! Like your vids 👊🏼
macrobin72 thanks for watching, I appreciate it!
Thank you so much Tom! Love your tours!
I’m so glad I found your video!
I am from Georgia. I love your videos.
Thanks, I lived in Atlanta for a few years actually - I liked it a lot!
Entertaining and informative. Thank you. I would have thought Little Italy would be more crowded with all of the folks afraid to go to Chinatown...
love your work, Tom
I love your video of Little Italy. I found out about you by watching some videos that you did with Actionkid! You are a great NYC tour guide and a teacher at history!
Lots of fun fact in 12 minutes. Thank you Tom. 🗽💕
Özgün Yurtseven Thanks, I try to cram in as much as possible and not make the videos too long.
Love your videos. You know sooooo much. Can’t wait to visit NY again in May.
Susan Gerhards That’s great! Thanks! Contact me in May if you’re interested in a tour or a comedy show!
these tours are great.
How can anyone have so much information in them. Love these walking tours. I grew up in Queens but never know what SoHo or TRIBECA stood for
Your knowledge is impressive... But your humorous style is the best of your tours👍
I miss the city with this whole pandemic thing going on, so I’ll have to live vicariously through you👍🏻thanks!
Thanks for making the best tour videos! Can you please make a video on Bensonhurst, Brooklyn? I'll be traveling there in a few weeks and I'm hoping to learn as much about it as possible before I go!
Thank you so much Tom! Love your tours very entertaining and informative.
Hi Tom. Nice videos. You always show the architecture of buildings which is great but don't forget about all of the wrought iron railings etc. The ones in NYC usually are of very high quality and in many cases quite artistic. One of my favorites is the one surrounding the Dakota building. Looks like 2 seahorses with Neptune in the middle of them.
"Yeah, I know some stuff" 😅 You're a crack-up!
Fiona M Thanks for watching, Fiona
@@tomdnyc1 No worries 😊 Just keep doing what you're doing.
New subscriber here. I found you on Action kids video walking Greenpoint. I hope you continue to Williamsburg like you mentioned. Loved the Little Italy tour even though it's half the size it was when I was a teenager. Keep up the awesome tours! 🇮🇹
I’ve been waiting for another video of yours!!! Keep it real!!!
Nice thanks!
Bro everyone of your videos is amazing! Not enough for me to donate to patreon but still damn good 😊👍
Fascinating information
i went from happy to sad watching this video.
The Joe Gallo hit was dramatized in the Scorcese movie "The Irishman", and they recreated the old Umberto's restaurant, looks just like it did back in the day
evancortez2 that’s what I heard, I gotta check it out. And Jim Norton plays Rickles!
@@tomdnyc1 very good film.
This is the best RUclips channel along with a couple more, I know more about NYC than my own country. Greetings from Chile Tom!
I visited with Itailian exchange students in 2000, went to little Italy and WTC now looking back was a hey day. Just gets smaller and smaller
Hope one day you get a show on the History Channel!
Fabulous video, like all your videos.
I hope one day you make one dedicated to the Empire State Building or the Chrysler building or the 30 rock, and many more, buildings all of them, magnificent, and with a lot of history on their backs it would be great to discover them more thoroughly and from your point of view. (I love architecture ... that's why) .it would be very interesting to know more about its construction and its history, told by you it would be very interesting to watch and learn¡¡¡ Cheers :-) and again, thanks a lot for your GREAT videos¡¡¡¡
santi For sure. More videos coming!
We visited Ferrara on a school trip in seventh grade. I just thought it was a fantastic wonderland, very like a movie set.
Nice background on the Ravenite (now a shoe store) and DaGennero / Umbertos. On you Lincoln Center videos, maybe you can cover the Joe Colombo location.
Just discovered your vids, fantastic job! As an Italian, it saddens me a little knowing places like little Italy are not what they used to be anymore, but as you mentioned it's the americanization process. Love the nostalgic feeling of it though, you can still grasp the vibe here and there, either way representation always hits deep.
Great video!!
You framed up the shrinking little Italy perfectly . I never thought of it that way
My grandmother came here from Italy to Ellis Island. I’ve always wanted to be a New Yorker for some reason.
Bro...no one Compare you do the coolest Videos
omi omi Thanks for watching!
La Mela is My Spot. I Go there every time I’m in NYC
Awesome video, was waiting for you to mention DeSalvio Playground, across from the Spring Lounge…where Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts hung out in Pope of Greenwich Village
This was great. New follower. My third video so far.
I wish things were safer. Would love a drinking tour with Tomas! Salud 🍻
Man, you are good! Watching you from Australia. We have a fair few Italians here too. Much love
Hi Tom. It was nice to see Little Italy . I've visited there and realize it survives for the tourists and seems like Chinatown is swallowing it. I'm glad to hear that former residents comeback for the festivals. One of my great grandfathers came through Ellis Island. I'm Calabrese on my mother's side. Hopefully, the restaurants are still high quality and not cheapen because of the tourists. It's funny that John Gotti's former headquarters is now a boutique. As I said, even though your family came from Central America, you could be mistaken for being Italian. I made that mistake and I'm sure do many others. The town I live in has a large Italian population and some of them have lived here for a long time. My mother's family first lived in a section of Pittsburgh that was like Little Italy but had totally disappeared because of urban renewal. What is now considered the Little Italy in Pittsburgh is a different neighborhood that also has a festival that attracts a lot of people.
Amazing as always hugs 🤗
Hola Tom! Muy bueno el video! Te puedo hacer dos consultas? La primera es en qué época me convendría ir a pasear por la ciudad, ya que la vez que fui fue en Marzo y quería saber si seria bueno mediados de Abril principios de Mayo, o fines de Noviembre para el desfile de Macy's, más que nada por el clima. Y segunda pregunta(perdon :P), si hay alguna empresa de autobuses desde JFK hasta Manhattan. Gracias! Saludos desde Argentina!
La mejor temporada para visitar NYC, considerando el clima, es Septiembre o Octubre. Y si hay buses de JFK a Manhattan pero casi no vale la pena porque son compartidos y tomar el subway es super simple del aeropuerto - hay una linea de subway (linea A) que te lleva directo a barrios como Times Square, Distrito Financiero y Greenwich Village.
tomdnyc Gracias por responder y por la info! Cuando esté por ir te aviso y te llevo unos alfajores! Abrazo! 😃
LMAO the seagull sound on every foreign country you showed! your captions are pretty damn funny also! :-D
Always enjoy watching your films. Just another input apropos Umberto's Clam House. One version of the Joey Gallo's killing is that "The Irishman" Frank -----(?) from Philly who grew up in the area of South Philly's Little Italy was the guy who stabbed Gallo. He always used a knife. He was not a mafioso but he spoke Italian and knew his way around the Italian culture. Just another tidbit of gangland life.
You are right. They were persecuted. My mom didn’t want her school friends to know she had fresh baked bread from home. Things have changed now.
Watched the scene of Godfather where he was shot up at the fruit stand. (We were across the street). This was back in early 70s. I was also kicked out of restaurant in little Italy for imitating Italian lyric...”Bah..Fan..Goo”.. who knew? I was only 17 then. Good times.
Rose Tandy Dang, you got to see them film Godfather! That’s way better than when I see Law & Order SVU!
Tom should do a haunted Manhattan video
Lil Dave not a bad idea! Maybe I will...
7:20 my wife and I went to dinner at Da Nico on our first date in 2004 and loved it so much that we decided if we got married to name our first child 'DaNico' after the restaurant.. we found out we were having a girl a few years later and changed the "o" to an "a" and when we wrote it down we realized it spelt 'Danica' and that is her middle name.
I think your sarcasm is what I love most about your vids! Lol great job on speaking "Mexican"
Subbed and started enjoying your channel, thanks mate. How do I get information regarding tours that you give Tom?
Rich T. Hey, Rich! Feel free to contact me through Instagram (@tomdnyc).
Great view of empire state from mulberry st you could have watched it getting built from there
Yeah, that must have been a trip to see.
Very good video!
Is Puglia’s restaurant still around?
Very interesting!
Just watched “The Offer” today and knew Joey Gallo was going meet his fate due to this video.
The Street Festival in The Godfather II was in honor of San Rocco, not San Gennaro.
In New York City (Manhattan), the Feast of San Rocco predates the Feast of San Gennaro.
Historically, immigrants from Potenza in the Italian region of Basilicata established the Feast of San Rocco before the Neapolitans established the Feast of San Gennaro.
The family of Francis Ford Coppola, the Director of the Godfather films, immigrated to the United States from Basilicata. Hence, the connection to San Rocco.
How did you learn so much about nyc if you're from Florida? Lol blows my mind.
Hey my main men i'm still waiting for the fashion district would you please give us a tour of it thnx!!!
Tom can you do a full video on the mafia thanks
Dude you’re from Tampa? Sarasota here... represent!
The Italian-Americans in Boston's North End don't think like the Italian-Americans in New York City. They strive to maintain their neighborhood's historic character and restaurants.
Translation: I'm pretentious LOL!! So funny!
🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
I can see the Americanazation by the names of shops and restaurants. We wouldn't title them like that. Cheers from Italy 🇮🇹
Seven roommates, no windows and USD$1100 a month. F**king hell!
Just my personal preference I really favour the clean-cut look on you over the Grizzly Adam's face.
Ok I am back, this is my fifth video, catching up on all of them!
Not to much longer Staten Island is changing also....
Bobby Boca I believe it, since the whole city’s changing, but it’s worth fighting to save what’s great about it!
TIL it’s Houston (house-ton) and not Houston (hue-ston; like Houston, TX). Mind blown!
How do we sign up for a tour with you ?
You can contact me through Instagram! @tomdnyc
Ja jajajaja “i speak Mexican” jajajajajjaja. Great video, this let me know I’ll be just a bit there.
Marcia Sabatel Gracias, Marcia!
Jovino has closed for good last year.
Lmao, I speak “Mexican” 🤣 😂 dead!
Whoow. you literally look like Ted Bundy, the body language, the voice, everything.
I sincerely apologize if I offended you Tom, but i just had to point that out.
That's what I noticed the 1st time I saw him as well, lol
are you Italian American?
No, I am actually Nicaraguan-American. First generation.
“I speak Mexican” 😂😂😂
more mafia stuff please
little italy has been shrinking for 20 years at least. i think more than anything its because chinatown is sprawling into adjacent areas.