Mike's, Modern, or Maria's? North End Pastry Shops

• Destination List
• Friday, August 01, 2008

When you dine in the North End, you will find that most of the restaurants in the North End do not have a dessert menu. The North End restaurants  know to leave Italian dessert and caffe to the professionals.  And that means you will need to hit one of the North End's pastry shops if you want a cannoli or tiramisu to go with your after-dinner espresso. Insider Tip: Tourists tend to go to Mike's, locals to Modern, and if you don't want to wait in line at all, head over to Maria's.

1 Mike's Pastry

Mike’s is always packed- it is the largest bakery in the North End and it has the most tables. The selection is huge- they have Italian American specialties like rum cake, biscotti, and fancy-colored Italian butter cookies. Mike’s serves gelato too. Note: Mike's is cash only.

2 Modern Pastry

Modern has a nice selection of Italian pastry and cookies, but everyone comes for the cannoli. Modern fills your cannoli shells with sweetened ricotta to order . Hands-down, these are the best in the city! Modern also makes hard to find two -bite cannolis, which after a divine meal in one of the North End trattorias is often just right.

3 Maria's Pastry

One of the smaller pastry shops in the North End this is always the least crowded since it is not on Hanover Street, the North End's main drag. Maria's sells filled to order cannoli, perfect amarettii , and a lovely baba rum. The ricotta pie -which is an Italian version of cheesecake- is killer. Maria’s has very limited seating, but the shop is ideally located across the street from the North End Park portion of the Rose Kennedy Greenway where there are lots of tables and chairs to linger.