Big Dig gone, North End tells tourists charm is back

The North End, after years of feeling hemmed in by the Big Dig, is embarking on an aggressive effort to promote itself to tourists and Boston residents who have shied away during construction, with television commercials on the Food Channel, a major makeover of Salem Street, and a new line of slogan-bearing trinkets.

Long an attraction for tourists who came for an Italian meal and to see historical sites like the church where lanterns set Paul Revere on his midnight ride, the North End is being touted by promoters who want to forge a new image of a retail paradise where high-end shopping goes hand-in-hand with old world charm.

"We are trying to create a situation where we have art stores, small boutiques, and shoe stores," said Joanne Prevost Anzalone , a local realtor and former president of the neighborhood council. "And it's going to, in some ways, become more like Newbury Street. And we want to encourage a diversity of businesses."

Promoters plan next month to blanket area hotels, restaurants, and tourist sites with 25,000 brochures and maps of the neighborhood's attractions. Television spots are to be filmed over the next several weeks featuring neighborhood fire fighters, police officers, cooks, and residents who say, "This is my North End." The slogan is meant to depict the neighborhood as a place where everyone can find something they like.

T-shirts, coffee cups, wine glasses, and key chains with the My North End slogan are to go on sale alongside T-shirts at stores such as the Old North Church gift shop. There are also plans for a cookbook with recipes for dishes made in the North End. Business owners are also asking that the Government Center exit sign on Interstate 93 include "The North End."

"We want to make it tourist-happy," said Frank DePasquale , president of the North End Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the push. "To us it's well known, but to people in Utah and Florida, it might not be."

The North End, Boston's oldest residential neighborhood and one of its best known tourist destinations, endured for years the dust and noise of Big Dig construction to bury the Central Artery, a highway that sliced the neighborhood from the rest of the city. Now that the old elevated highway and the construction are gone, business leaders want to capitalize on an influx of art galleries, coffee shops, and high-end merchants that have transformed the neighborhood in recent years as wealthy urban dwellers moved in.

City officials and Councilor Salvatore LaMattina have been working with neighborhood officials to draw tourists off well-known Hanover Street to Salem Street, a narrow side street often overlooked by outsiders.

Some of the plans for Salem Street, which will begin to be implemented this spring, include installing overhead twinkle lights that could be modified for holidays such as Independence Day and Christmas; hanging plants from windows and light poles; and installing a gateway structure at the front of the street that would announce Salem Street to the foot and car traffic on the Greenway.

Longer-term plans for the area include raising the street so that it is flush with the sidewalk as a way to promote more pedestrian traffic; providing an informational kiosk for tourists to get maps and advice on where to go; and providing areas for pushcart marketers.

Some of the improvements will be paid for by local businesses, and others will be financed by the city.

There are also plans to create a North End History Trail that will develop a new tour that highlights several historic landmarks in the neighborhood and integrates spots along the Freedom Trail, Boston Women's Heritage Trail, and Jewish Friendship Trail.

"Salem Street could really use some help aesthetically and help enliven the street and raise its profile so it's seen, along with Hanover, as the critical commercial district," said Peter Gori , project manager for the city's Crossroads Initiative.

Advocates of the North End's new image say they want to be careful to promote the new, glitzier image without tarnishing the old ethnic character that has been long a draw to tourists.

"You can still come here for a slice of pizza and it will be the best slice of pizza you had in your life," said Nick Varano , who owns the Strega Restaurant. "But it's becoming a neighborhood where you can come in for sandwich for lunch, buy a dress, see tourist things, and then have a gourmet meal and then go to a café and have a nice cappuccino."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who still drops his shirts off at Lavanderia and buys bread every Saturday from Parziale's Bakery , said he supports the upgrading of the infrastructure to promote more business, but wants the neighborhood to maintain its cultural flavor.

"The uniqueness of it, the narrow passageways -- the North End, even with its diminishing Italian population, is maintaining a lot of its character," said Menino, the city's first Italian mayor. "A lot of the originality of the North End is maintained there."

Still, some longtime residents fear that the transition will further dilute the neighborhood culture.

"The old charm is gone," Sal Fiamma, 72 , said as he took a break from the Rome-Manchester soccer game and stood outside Caffe dello Sport, wearing a brown tie, vest, and driving cap. "The butcher shops are going, one by one . . . and whiskey is not sold like it used to be. White wine has taken over, and all those stupid drinks like fruit martinis."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.