My almost namesake restaurant, on 57th Street in Manhattan. For the record, “Mangina” really is related to the Italian nonna’s cry of mangia, mangia. In Sicily (from which my grandfather emigrated to America c. 1904) the name was Mangiaraccina, meaning “grape eater.” So was a distant ancestor of mine a vineyard worker? a wine bibber? or just a guy who liked his grapes?
