Big Night for 'Little Italy'

By Ed Fuentes
Published: Tuesday, June 30, 2009, at 06:51AM

Ed Fuentes [Flickr]

The First Annual "Taste of Italy" at the Pico House.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — At the Los Angeles Historic Italian Hall Foundation's First Annual "Taste Of Italy" on Saturday night, Councilman Tom LaBonge won over the Pico House crowd with a prototype district sign that read "Little Italy." It was presented in between opera sets and servings of wine, pastas and pizza.

The borders of what would make up a Little Italy would certainly take debate. The Italian community in Los Angeles was originally centered in land that is today occupied by Chinatown.

Still, one of the signs could go by the Italian Hall, where the Foundation plans to build a museum on the second floor.

The space is slated for a 2010 opening, but dates to open a museum there have slipped before.

The effort to build a museum that tells the stories about Italian-American Angelenos has been ongoing since 1988, when L.A.'s Italian community began a support group, Friends of the Italian Hall. They in turn became the Historic Italian Hall Foundation in 1993.

Outside the Pico House, once owned by a Giuseppe Pagliano, tables were filled with people having coffees and desserts, finding shared bonds going back several generations.

"It's like going to a wedding and finding out you have a lot of relatives," one man is overheard as saying. "I didn't know we had such a big Los Angeles family."

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Ed Fuentes

Italian Hall Foundation Board's John Rotundi and Councilmember Tom LaBonge.

Ed Fuentes

Patti Palumbo vamps to an audience member at the Pico House.

Comments

Carol Jacques writes:

I attended it was great fun.Huge success! CarolJacques

# on Jul.01.2009 AT 10:20 AM

Teresa D'Agostaro writes:

What great pictures of a great night! Thanks for covering this awesome event which raised funds and awareness of the Italian Museum project.

# on Jul.01.2009 AT 10:23 AM

Roger Vitti writes:

Great event, but only the beginning. Once the Hall opens, there will be many more. Thanks for the good photos.

# on Jul.01.2009 AT 10:55 AM

Rich Alossi writes:

Aw MAN, I wish I had known about this!

# on Jul.01.2009 AT 11:39 AM

John C. Rotondi writes:

Thank You for the great shots . This was our first Taste of Italy and while we learned a lot we(the Board) feel it wss very successful. The turnout was close to 500 people and the participation by the Restauranteurs and wine vendors was outstanding . The opera singers arranged by Mario Storace added another flavor to our Taste of Italy. We will try to have another Operatic event this summer. Besides raising money for the Italian Hall & Museum we wanted to let everyone know about the Italian American contributions to this great city . It is time to finally recognize our ancestors as well as the present generation

# on Jul.01.2009 AT 08:33 PM

Benjamin Pezzillo writes:

It has always amazed me that for its vast cultural diversity, let alone the contribution Italian-Americans made to the area, that Los Angeles does not have a contemporary Italian-American district.

Perhaps a good place to start would be bringing the Feast of San Gennaro to the LIttle Italy of Los Angeles' past? Although it looks like the location has already been set for this year's event:

http://www.feastofla.org/

# on Jul.06.2009 AT 09:50 PM