-by Jon Cotton

The owner of iconic Mike’s Pastry shop in the North End died Tuesday.  He was 90 years old.  Michael Mercogliano started Mike’s Pastry in 1946.  Mike’s Pastry’s facebook page reported the death immediately.  Mercogliano was a benefactor.  According to the Boston Globe article,  he “threw his support behind local charities, always saying yes when he was asked dozens of times per year for donations.”

His wife, Anette Mercogliano, is nice too.  I met her about three years ago on my trolley.  She went only from the Long Wharf to the Constitution, but she gave me a 20-dollar tip.  I have maintained a very positive impression of her ever since.  She was gracious and kind, and when I discovered, early on in the tour, that she was Mike’s wife, I explained to the guests her significance.  I have always described Mike’s as “an iconic institution of the North End.”  After “Where’s Nathaniel’s Market?” “Where’s Mike’s?” is one of the most common questions on the waterfront.

I came to know her identity early on in the tour due to the following circumstance.  I was doing my best to give an energetic tour, but these three women were talking so loudly that I became irritable.  While passing the Christopher Columbus Park, therefore, I delivered a narrative something like the following: “Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 and made four journeys to America before dying in 1506.  One of the chief marks of Columbus’s greatness was his awareness of others around him.  For example whenever he took a trolley tour, he was always very respectful and polite and spoke quietly so that everyone else could hear the tour guide without any difficulty.  If anyone tried to get him to speak loudly, he refused to do it, so respectful and polite was he to others.”

My respect was immediate when she said “Oh, do you mean us?  Sorry about that.  We’re old friends, all from the North End.”  Then she said who she was.  I was fascinated and immediately made the tour about them.  They all grew up in the North End and had a very North End Italian view and a lot to say – it was the living history and culture of Boston!  It added the greatest value to my tour.  And now once again, unexpectedly, she and her husband and their shop become central to my narration, but this time on a sadder note.

His funeral will be held in the North End on Tuesday.