Eat to the Beat: The Mama of all Street Fests Rolls through Town

The San Gennaro Festival has devolved in recent years into a bad Italian-American cliché everyone runs from while simultaneously craving.

Fortunately, a few fearless culinary heroes decided to grab the Mulberry Street clusterfuck by the berries and give it a fierce shake. Gone are the dropped vowels (“Eh, gimme some mozzerhel with my brazhoule!”) and the plaster of Paris saints. OK, that’s a lie.

All of the gaudy crap is still there (you know you want it), but now it’s joined by bib-worthy offerings from Torrisi Italian Specialties, Wylie Dufresene’s dad, Gabe Stulman, April Bloomfield and the two Frankies.

The New York Times dishes on the new-fangled goodies, but to really get into the rhythm and the rhyme of San Gennaro, you’ve gotta be there with a Zeppole in one hand and a cannoli in the other.

Before you head out, get primed for some old-fashioned cheese with the folks at Rubirosa, who somehow make spinning around to Earth Wind & Fire’s “September” look like a good time.