events you should do at least once every five years or so. Go with no expectations, meander (as best you can in the crowd) from Houston St. to Canal St., and savor the aroma of sausages, seafood and sweat commingling around you. This year's feast culminates on Sunday, September 26 (is it really already the last weekend in September???), with the Grand Procession of the Statue of San Gennaro at 2 p.m., led by actor Tony Lo Bianco (The Honeymoon Killers, The French Connection), the Grand Marshall.I like to go on a week night, when it's typically less crowded, and
met my friend Steven at Mulberry and Prince last Wednes-day, the final night of the summer. I got schooled on braciole (pronounced bra-zhul) and consumed a tasty one, dressed with broccoli rabe and sauteed onions, at Lucy's, where the proprietor kept shouting, "Fredo, you disappoint me, Fredo," while he charred the pork cutlet on the grill.
When a thunderstorm rolled in from the West, we waited it
out under the canopy of a gaming concession, where one of the available prizes was a stuffed Obama doll. Seeking a better shelter, we ended the wet evening at Ferrara, where we splurged on Tiramisu, an assortment of miniature pastries (cannoli, chocolate mignon and a chocolate mousse Dacquoise) and iced cappuccino.
With the storm over, we wandered west across Grand St., eventually making our
way over to Seventh Ave., celebrating the arrival of fall at 11:09 p.m. as we walked uptown. At 23rd St. we could just make out through the cloud cover a fuzzy Jupiter under the (nearly) harvest moon. At a rate of once every five years or so, we'll be making two or three treks back to San Gennaro before Jupiter passes this close to Earth again in 2022.
