Bensonhurst: Brooklyn’s Italian Neighborhood

Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in Brooklyn, home to Jewish, southern Italian, and Chinese families. It's also the neighborhood where Tony Manero (John Travolta) does his funky strut in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever.

Visiting Bensonhurst will help you understand how New York was built, this endless mosaic of nationalities and stories from everywhere.

What to do in Bensonhurst

You could walk 18th Avenue under the elevated subway line and grab two slices at Lenny's, all to the beat of Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees, exactly the way Travolta did 🙂

Lenny's Pizza, where Travolta ate, is still open, but it seems the current owners don't know much about the movie, because there isn't a single sign or photo mentioning its cameo. Definitely a serious marketing miss!

Between 67th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway, along 18th Avenue (also known as Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard), you'll find small cafés, pastry shops, grocery stores, and restaurants run by some of the Italian families who still live in the neighborhood.

It's especially relaxing to sit on a bench facing the water at Gravesend Bay, where locals and visitors sunbathe, fish, ride bikes, or fly kites. It's a peaceful scene that's hard to find in any other modern New York neighborhood.

You can also wander the side streets, lined with townhouses that echo the Victorian style, though more and more of them are being replaced by impersonal apartment buildings.

If you're in the area, take the chance to visit Coney Island, in my opinion one of the can't-miss neighborhoods in New York :).

Italians in Brooklyn

As for the Italian influence in Bensonhurst, know that it was once called the Little Italy of Brooklyn (if the history of Italians in New York interests you, you have to visit the Bronx's Little Italy).

Here it used to be common to find two or three generations living on the same block, speaking Italian or staying in the same house for more than 50 years, pure Sicilian style. Not anymore. New York changes fast and sheds its skin with every new wave of immigrants.

New York's mob neighborhood

Another interesting note is that Bensonhurst has historically been linked to the mafia. There's plenty of exaggeration, but it's true that the 1980s brought some notorious gangster killings here, like the car bomb that took out Frank DeCicco in 1986, a member of the Gambino family led by John Gotti, the last great godfather, straight out of a Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese movie.

The Feast of Santa Rosalia

Italian traditions live on in Bensonhurst, like the Festa di Santa Rosalia in late August or early September.

Hundreds of visitors head to Cristoforo Colombo Avenue (18th Ave) between 66th and 75th Streets for the event. It's a celebration similar to the Feast of San Gennaro in Manhattan's Little Italy, but here the honoree is Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo and much of Sicily.

Another Chinatown in New York

But as I mentioned, over the past couple of decades the Italian American community has been giving up more and more ground to Chinese families, in a process very similar to what happened in Manhattan's Little Italy (if you want to see the most authentically Asian neighborhood in New York today, head to Flushing in Queens).

Notice that under the elevated D train, along 86th Street between 18th and Stillwell Avenues, another Chinatown in Brooklyn is emerging, in addition to the Sunset Park Chinatown, with a mostly Cantonese population.

Bensonhurst in pop culture

As for famous residents tied to the neighborhood (real ones, not fictional like Saturday Night Fever), the most notable are the classic Three Stooges: Moses (Moe), Samuel (Shemp), and Jerome (Curly) Howard.

There's also Larry King, host of the famous talk show, who grew up in Bensonhurst.

At some point in their lives, Barbra Streisand, Iggy Pop, and actor Vincent D'Onofrio all lived in this Little Italy in Brooklyn.

Bensonhurst has contributed to industry too: the Sbarro pizzeria chain started right here.

Address

Bensonhurst sits between 61st St to the north and Gravesend Bay to the south, McDonald Ave to the east and 14th Ave to the west

How to get to Bensonhurst

The D and M subway lines will drop you at different points in Bensonhurst. The 18th Ave station is one of the most central spots for getting a feel for this Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn.