The North End
Jump to the North End Neighborhood Picks
Boston’s North End is the city’s oldest residential community where people have lived continuously since it was first settled in 1630. A tiny little peninsula located just east of Downtown, the North End has been home successively to escaped and freed slaves, Irish immigrants, and Jews. Today, it is most famous as the center of Italian life in Boston, and is replete with dozens of Italian bakeries, restaurants, pizzerias, and neighborhood markets. The North End feels like a tiny Italian village and is unique in that it so successfully mixes homes and businesses in a thoroughly Old World way. Attracted by the convenience of this style of life, as well as its quick access to Downtown a number of young professionals have moved to this part of town in recent years, also giving the neighborhood a certain “hip” factor. In Italian, it’s pretty “fico” (ganzo to those of you from Northern Italy).
Apartments in this town are often miniscule, but not many neighborhoods can beat the restaurant scene, street life and general convenience of the North End. Want fresh baked bread, a slab of Pecorino cheese, a half pound of Mortadella? In the North End, you usually need walk no further than downstairs to find it all. Tourists flock to this part of town for its history (Paul Revere’s House, the Old North Church and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground are all located here) as well as its dining and nightlife. Because the neighborhood is surrounded on three sides by water, some of the higher-priced North End condos offer spectacular waterviews.
Neighborhood fact: Less than 9,000 people live in the North End.
North End Links
Where to go in the North End for:
- Meat: Sulmona Meat Market
32 Parmenter Street
617.742.2791
An authentic Italian butcher shop with an owner from Abruzzo. - Women’s Vintage Clothing: The Velvet Fly.
- Women’s Contemporary Clothing: Casa di Stile, focused on women’s tops.
- American-style baked goods: Lulu’s Bake Shoppe, specializing in the American specialities of cupcakes, brownies and cheesecake.
- Irish-style pub: Goody Glover’s
- Blue Jeans: Injeanius, 30 plus brands of jeans and unique t-shirts to match.
- Gift Items and Jewelry: Shake the Tree Gallery, featuring clothing, fancy soaps, candles and more.
- Women’s Dresses: Twilight, 12 Fleet Street, (617) 523-8008, dressier rather than casual clothing.
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