Stanley Cup Final postcard: Boston's North End

The 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues continues with Game 6 at St. Louis on Sunday (8 p.m.ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS). NHL.com writers covering the series will provide a daily Stanley Cup Final postcard from whatever city they're in. Today, staff writer Tom Gulitti checks in from Boston's North End.

BOSTON -- If you've been following these Stanley Cup Final postcards, you might have noticed several have involved food.
That's just the way we roll at NHL.com. If we're not writing, we're usually eating somewhere.
So of course, we've been drawn to the North End, Boston's "Little Italy", more than once.

The first visit was for dinner at Benevento's on Salem Street on the evening before Game 1.
Since moving from New Jersey to Washington three years ago, I've been searching for good chicken parmigiana in the district and haven't found many restaurants that meet the New Jersey/New York standard. In the North End, there are several and Benevento's is one of them. I also enjoyed the house-made fusilli recommended by our waitress.
Returning to Boston for Game 5 on Thursday gave us a chance to make another trip to the North End for pizza at Regina Pizzeria, which has multiple locations. I always to go to the original on Thacher Street, which opened in 1926). There is usually a line, but the wait is worth it.
Defenseman Zdeno Chara, who lives in the North End, is among the many Boston Bruins whose photos are on the walls at Regina Pizzeria. Unfortunately, after being struck the mouth/jaw by a puck in Game 4 on Monday, Chara probably won't be enjoying their pizza any time soon.

Our NHL.com foursome -- Nick Cotsonika, Dan Rosen, Mike Zeisberger and I -- shared three small pies: one Original North End Recipe, The Giambotta (pepperoni, sausage, salami, mushrooms, peppers, onions, fresh basil and Mozzarella cheese) and the Meatball Pomodoro Fresco (marinated tomatoes, meatballs, Mozzarella, Romano and Parmesan cheeses, garlic sauce and fresh basil).
Needless to say, there were no leftovers. But we still had room for dessert, so we made the short walk to Mike's Pastry on Hanover Street.
Mike's is famous for its cannoli, so Nick, Dan and I each had one with chocolate chips. For some reason, Zeisberger was enthralled with the cream puff -- or he thought it would be funny to make me order a cream puff for him.
We had them boxed so we could eat them at our hotel, but Zeisberger ditched us on the drive back to meet up with friends, having our Uber driver pull over (rising Nick's five-star rating) and jumping out before I could say, "Take the cream puff. Leave the cannoli."