After years of dust, noise, and upheaval caused by the Big Dig project, the North End is once again an accessible treasure. The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway makes it easy to navigate from the Haymarket subway terminal to Cross Street and from there to Hanover, which stretches like a spine to the waterfront.
While the city's construction project was transforming the surrounding landscape, the North End, home to the Old North Church and Paul Revere's house along the Freedom Trail, also was changing. Known for decades as a neighborhood where pizza and pasta with red sauce ruled supreme, the North End is now home to a number of sophisticated eateries and fashionable boutiques. On a menu, you are as apt to find artichoke-pecorino ravioli topped with a cream of langoustine condiment as spaghetti with meatballs.
But those who loved the old North End should not despair. The neighborhood has managed to preserve its identity while expanding its repertoire to include the upscale and trendy. Restaurants may now have large windows that open to the street - rather than dark interiors with Chianti bottles overhead - but you still find places like the Caffe dello Sport, with Italian soccer team schedules taped to the cash register, two big-screen TVs to catch the action, and cappuccino topped with schiuma perfetta.
Eating well is a hallmark of the North End. You may spend a little or a lot but you won't be hungry when you leave.
The line stretches from the counter out the door most days at Galleria Umberto. Open for lunch only, this cavernous, no-frills operation has been in business since 1973. The pizza is Sicilian-style: large pans of bubbling cheese with sauce cut into squares. The arancini (deep-fried rice balls stuffed with meat and cheese) are the size of candlepin bowling balls and the yam-shaped panzarotti (deep-fried breaded mashed potatoes with cheese and herbs) are surprisingly light and fluffy.
Of course every return visitor has his or her own favorite pizza. Christine Scannell of Topsfield, a self-described "pizza snob," swears by the more than 30 varieties of pies at Ernesto's Pizzeria on Salem Street.
