When I was a teenager Wooster Street meant more than just Pepe's or Sally's. It meant the Avest, i.e. "The Feast." Every summer the street would be shut down for stretch of summer nights that could either contain the best night of your summer or the one where one of your best friends was arrested.
Highlights of "The Feast" included the fried mozz or suffrito (the latter on a hard roll).
Whether Wooster Square residents loved the Avest or hated it depends upon who you asked. But, they all agreed - and continue to agree - that "redevelopment" and gentrification mean two different things.