You can buy a plane ticket to Italy for several hundred dollars, or you can take the T. The North End's small streets are lined with bakeries, specialty shops and quaint restaurants similar to those that populate Italian cities. The inviting smell of fresh bread and rich ricotta wafts from shops like Bova's and Maria's, transporting passersby to a cultural oasis where crumbling frescoes replace bright billboards.
"Little Italy" gives visitors and residents of Boston a taste of the boot-shaped country across the Atlantic, and tasting — of food, wine and sweet treats — is itself a central part of the North End's charm.
In the early 2000s, the Big Dig changed the landscape and culture of the North End. Pastry shops and other specialty stores, often family-owned and intimately tied to a loyal customer base, were severely affected by the construction and its aftermath. With current economic struggles, these small businesses are faced with difficult times and must adjust to a new "Little Italy."
Maria's pastry shop: Not all sugar and sweets
Though she may own a pastry shop, sugary sweet doesn't come close to describing Maria Merola.
"I don't like sweets," she said. That may come as a surprise — considering that most of Merola's time is spent making them.
Merola, 56, the woman behind Maria's Pastry Shop in Boston's North End, is independent, controlling, gruff and even unfriendly. Handshakes aren't her thing. Merola plops herself down in the chair for an interview and slams a half-full coffee mug down on the table. "Alright," she says roughly, picking at the remnants of something stuck to her polar fleece jacket and glancing around the room.
Merola grew up on a farm with her parents and three siblings in southern Naples before arriving in the United States in 1968. After a bad crop in Italy, her parents decided to make the jump from a rural life to an urban one — and from one country to another. "My father never liked the change," said Merola. "We felt like prisoners here."
Merola's father worked in a box factory and her mother clocked hours at a candy factory. When Merola was a teenager, she began work herself — at the pastry shop with a sign now bearing her name.
Merola knew little about baking until she started working at the shop, yet she took over the business in 1982. Merola now makes all of the pastries herself and refuses to use recipes. "All of the time I go by the recipe they don't come out right," said Merola. "You might like something, but don't ask me to make it again. Things always taste different."
The ingredients may vary, but the quality of Merola's pastries is consistent — and, some say, better than that of other North End bakeries. "We can use the same ricotta as someone else, but people say ours is better," said Merola. "My day-old stuff tastes better than their fresh stuff. It's knowing and feeling. You've got to touch it. I know when flour is dry, when ricotta is watery."
Bova's: A family effort
Bova's, located on Salem Street near the Old North Church in Boston, is currently owned by Anthony Bova. The shop specializes in whoopie pies and cannolis as well as a variety of Italian breads and calzones. It stays open 24/7 and, unlike Maria's Pastry Shop, Bova's relies on crews coming in for different shifts to continually bake fresh pastries and breads as needed.
The bakery has been in business for 85 years and has passed through three generations of Bovas. Anthony Bova's grandfather, originally from Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, began the business and passed it on to one of his five sons — Anthony's father.
"[My grandfather] had five sons, but I was like a son to him too," said Bova. "I worked there as a young boy until I took over the business after my father."
Bova noted that the atmosphere and comfort food his shop provides makes it appealing to long-time customers as well as those simply stopping by out of curiosity after a late dinner in "Little Italy."
"People don't see bakeries like this where they live," said Bova. "A lot of restaurants don't give you coffee with dessert. They want to turn the tables to make more money. That's why these cafes and bakeries get crowded — people need a place to lounge and relax."
Digging and changing
Merola said that her customer base has changed dramatically due to the Big Dig and resulting gentrification. "Before, families used to come here every weekend," said Merola. "I knew who was coming and who wasn't because they would call me. It used to be more one-on-one." Merola said that she used to sell 80 loaves of bread on a weekend. She now sells eight.
Big Dig construction was meant to increase traffic to the North End, which was previously segregated from much of Boston by I-93. In December of 2003, the Big Dig opened up Cross Street, on which Maria's Pastry Shop is currently located. The development was an attempt to improve traffic and pedestrian access to the area.
While Cross Street may have made the Italian sector more accessible to the rest of Boston, Merola said that other problems arose from the construction efforts. According to the pastry chef, affordable parking in the area, now phased out by Big Dig construction, once made the North End an easy one-stop shopping experience. Stores specializing in cheese, meat and other goods lined the street, but they've since left the area one by one. "They just couldn't make it," said Merola. "The cheese guy had people digging right in front of his door."
Now Merola relies primarily on tourists for clientele. Cooking-tour groups pass through the shop, visitors excitedly examining cannoli and sfogliatelle pastries with cameras slung around their necks. "People sometimes come in and say, ‘Oh, I used to come here every Saturday with my grandfather,'" said Merola. "Now they only come in once in a blue moon. I say, ‘Thanks a lot.'"
Bova attributes much of the changing customer base at his bakery to the developments to residential buildings in the North End. As buildings were sold and renovated in the area, landlords were able to charge higher rent — something that Bova said the average family can't afford.
"Years ago, rent was really cheap, but now things are turning around," said Bova. "Now kids going to school that their parents pay for are sharing the expense of an apartment. Families with kids can't afford it."
The Boston Globe published an article this September examining the tension between the North End's traditional family atmosphere and the growing younger crowd that has entered the area since the Central Artery strengthened its connection to the rest of Boston. Bova has noticed this influx of 20-somethings as well.
"We have a young customer base now, but it used to be more families," said Bova. "More young people are moving into the neighborhood; a lot of them are students that live here or moved here after school."
Pastry shops push on
With current economic woes, things aren't easy for small businesses. "Things do slow up," said Bova. "If people ain't around, no one's buying."
Bova has noticed a decrease in the number of visitors to the North End, which spells trouble for his shop.
"Some of the restaurants are hurting because no one wants to spend money on big meals anymore," said Bova. "When the restaurants are busy, a lot of them trickle down into our shop. When people don't come in to Boston to have dinners, it hurts us."
When asked what advice she might offer those wanting to start a business, Merola said simply: "Don't do it. Don't do it for the money or for the sweets. If you don't have the passion for the sacrifice ... don't do it."
In the future, Merola wants to keep her pastry shop small, but she needs a protègè to take her place. The task of finding a new chef has proven almost impossible due to what Merola cites as a lack of broad knowledge among applicants. "The younger generation has no imagination," said Merola. "These culinary students, they only do one thing. There is one guy who fills the cake, one who frosts ... but that's all they can do."
Merola has been searching for her replacement for 10 years. If she cannot find a suitable chef, she says she will close the shop. "I am a person who, when I like something, I take control," said Merola. "Things need to be done my way or no way."
Only time will tell whether businesses like Bova's and Maria's will hold up in the changing climate of Boston's "Little Italy," but in the meantime, these bakery owners stay true to their traditions — ones that existed long before the Big Dig and younger residents defined the North End.
