BELMONT

Belmont is a neighborhood in the Bronx known for its Italian heritage. Arthur Avenue is the center of the neighborhood’s Italian life. Here you’ll find real Italian bread, sausages and salami. A fresh food market and charming cafés attract people from throughout the region. Some argue that New York’s real Little Italy is here. Compared to Manhattan’s Little Italy, this one, in fact, is much more authentic. Unlike in most restaurants in Manhattan, here people actually do speak Italian, and it’s also less crowded with tourists here. The number of the Italian population, however, is decreasing, as the younger generations generally prefer to move away. Today, the neighborhood has a growing number of Albanian and Slavic residents.