Grotta Azzurra

387 Broome Street | also 177 Mulberry Street | Little Italy | built 1930

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1904

    William Rouse designs a six-story Colonial Revival corner tenement at Broome and Mulberry Streets

    The six-story brick corner tenement at 387 Broome Street and 177 Mulberry Street was built in 1904 to designs by William Rouse. The National Register nomination for the Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District lists it in the Colonial Revival style, with terracotta trim, brick quoins and a wrought-iron fire escape; the cornice is missing.

    Source: National Register nomination

  2. 1908

    Grotta Azzurra opens at Broome and Mulberry Streets, named for a sea cave on Capri

    The restaurant opened in 1908 on the corner that Forgotten New York calls the epicenter of Little Italy, taking its name from the Blue Grotto, a picturesque sea cave on Capri. During its long first run it served opera star Enrico Caruso and, later, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.

    Source: Forgotten New York

  3. 1940

    Victor Hazan first eats lobster fra diavolo at Grotta Azzurra

    In a 1996 New York Times article, wine expert Victor Hazan said he first ate lobster fra diavolo at Grotta Azzurra in 1940. His wife, cookbook author Marcella Hazan, recalled the dish as very heavy and typical of Italian cooking in America.

    Source: barrypopik.com

  4. 1996

    May

    A Grotta Azzurra owner says her grandfather brought lobster fra diavolo from Naples

    In a New York Times article on the dish's disputed origins, Connie Davino, an owner of Grotta Azzurra, said her father told her that her grandfather brought the recipe from Naples. She added that the restaurant had served it for as long as she could remember. The article noted that the restaurant was founded in 1908.

    Source: barrypopik.com

  5. 1997

    Grotta Azzurra closes after almost nine decades and reopens in 2003

    The original Grotta Azzurra ended its run in 1997, after nearly ninety years on the corner of Mulberry and Broome. It stayed closed until the restaurant reopened in 2003.

    Source: Forgotten New York

Further reading

Nearby

All 76 buildings with stories in Little Italy