The Brier Hill Italian Festival celebrates Youngstown’s old Italian neighborhood with plenty of Italo-Youngstown foods, including the green pepper and sauce Brier Hill Pizza, the braciola sandwich with peppers, the pepper and egg sandwich and more. Vendors and entertainment this neighborhood food fest.
2023 DATE: August 17-20, 2023
Location: Calvin and Victoria Streets
Youngstown, Ohio 44510
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1127867553923375/
****
This post documents my experience on August 20, 2022.
I headed to Youngstown’s Little Italy, in the Brier Hill neighborhood…
…where the colors were green, white and red…
…and people gathered along Calvin and Victoria Streets…
…for the 30th annual Brier Hill Italian Festival.
Vendors at the festival sold mostly apparel (great if you got sauce on your shirt)…
…and I loved the ones with Brier Hill Pride…
…but, with two main areas lined with food vendors, this was obviously an eating festival…
…where you could find pasta, pizza…
…and even polenta (Double Bogey’s).
Many vendors benefitted from having food displays or pictures for the not-so-typical food items…
…like this impressive chicken cutlet sandwich topped with mozzeralla sticks, NY Strip Steak, a stuffed hot pepper and cheese (Armida’s Cucina)…
…cavatelli bread bowls (Monaco’s Concession)…
…the Brier Hill pizza, consisting of sauce with green peppers and topped with parmesan (St. Anthony’s)…
…the fantastic braciola sandwich with hot peppers (Bracciole Bros)…
…and the deep fried stuffed hot pepper sandwich.
Peppers, particularly the hot ones, were pretty popular at this festival…
…but there was plenty of beer to help cool down the gullet…
…as well as wine and cocktails at the VFW and ITAM Club…
…the latter which also sold the highly recommended lamb lollipops (Michael Alberini’s).
Nearby, as the Mikey D Band played a soothing melody…
…guests enjoyed their food and drink under a covered area.
Afterwards, festival goers could either nab a cigar to savor…
…place a bet or play a hand of cards…
…(children also had the chance to win some prizes)…
…or find themselves a nice Italian dessert, whether traditional (Rimedio’s Bakery)…
…or untraditional (Riccardo’s Sweets and Eats).
For myself, I was fortunate enough to bring home a delicious nut roll (Kolachi Anytime)…
…and cookies that brought me back to my youth.