As someone with a keen interest in the history of Italian restaurants in this country – and history, generally – I happened to be curious yesterday about how demographics likely affected the location, density or paucity of Italian restaurants around the country after the Second World War, when dining out became more popular with a growing and more prosperous population.
I was quickly able to find what I was looking for with the 1950 census in a report about those who were born abroad or who had at least one parent who was foreign born. Then, there were 4.6 million American residents who listed as from Italy, then second highest country of origin, just behind Germany’s 4.7 million with the most people of “foreign white stock,” as the Bureau of Census phrased it back then.
Italian restaurants midcentury were where the Italians were, both those born in Italy and their offspring. These were the people then running Italian restaurants. The twenty cities with the most Italians in 1950 were:
This might not be too surprising, but I found it interesting. These are the cities that have among the deepest Italian-rooted dining traditions.
Charles Ruggiero, clerk in a grocery store in New York's Italian section, wishes the handful of spaghetti he is breaking were Mussolini's neck. July 1942; Library of Congress
I was quickly able to find what I was looking for with the 1950 census in a report about those who were born abroad or who had at least one parent who was foreign born. Then, there were 4.6 million American residents who listed as from Italy, then second highest country of origin, just behind Germany’s 4.7 million with the most people of “foreign white stock,” as the Bureau of Census phrased it back then.
Italian restaurants midcentury were where the Italians were, both those born in Italy and their offspring. These were the people then running Italian restaurants. The twenty cities with the most Italians in 1950 were:
- New York – 684,865
- Chicago – 116,595
- Philadelphia – 115,205
- Boston – 53,335
- Newark – 49,275
- Detroit – 43,580
- Buffalo – 36,615
- Rochester, NY – 34,555
- Providence – 34,370
- San Francisco – 32,960
- Cleveland – 32,340
- Pittsburgh – 31,635
- Los Angeles – 31,185
- Jersey City – 27,950
- New Haven – 26,290
- Baltimore – 16,795
- Waterbury, CT – 16,090
- Syracuse – 15,650
- New Orleans – 15,340
- Hartford, CT – 14,570
This might not be too surprising, but I found it interesting. These are the cities that have among the deepest Italian-rooted dining traditions.
Charles Ruggiero, clerk in a grocery store in New York's Italian section, wishes the handful of spaghetti he is breaking were Mussolini's neck. July 1942; Library of Congress
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