This is the big sign in Little Italy in San Diego. This style of font always reminds me of Rapture in BioShock. In Seattle there are quite a few signs that have this type of font too. Little Italy is decidedly different in feel here than in NYC. Of course pedestrian population is far far less dense and also fewer small little restaurants.
I’ve only been to a couple in the area but most of them look like the type of restaurants that you only eat at every once in a while because you’re going to be dropping at least $20-30 and even higher if you get alcohol. The places I’ve been to have been good so far with some new interesting foods I haven’t had before. I had a really great squid ink gnocchi when I was visiting last December.
I walked trough little Italy in Manhattan and found it to be mostly tourist trap. Next to that, we went trough chinatown, but either I was in the wrong neighbourhood or something else was wrong, as there were 0 shops open during the evening, and most shops were business to business. Absolutely no people on the street. Compared to that, Chinatown in Toronto was much cooler!
Yes it’s true, Little Italy and Chinatown in Manhattan is mostly a tourist trap. Little Italy usually consists of guys on the street trying to get you to eat at their place. Plus lots of posters of Scarface, Tony Soprano etc.
The thing though is that if you’re in the “real” Chinatown sections of Manhattan then those are the places people are less likely to speak English or be hospitable towards tourists. Queens Chinatown is much bigger than Manhattan but not a touristy place. Brooklyn Chinatown is similar.