Pizza History is New York History

New York is the birthplace of pizza in America, as most people know it. With over 2,000 pizzerias, there's wood, coal, gas-fired pies, slices and squares, Neapolitan, and more. Pizza culture here is so strong, you could even take a tour to learn about the history of this seemingly basic food. Scott Wiener, who runs his own pizzeria tour company, is the most knowledgeable person in this field by far. So many people come to New York to eat pizza, and there's so many stories about where all these great pizzerias came from. Help us break this down. When people come to New York, they totally understand that the city has a special relationship with pizza. There's a deeper story. I know when I first found out that there was such a thing as a place that calls itself the first pizzeria in America, my mind was blown. I was like, there's history to pizza? Yeah, how is that documented? How cool is that, that this food has a history? The story is pretty similar for all these places. People had ovens where they were being used for bread. Bakers are baking pizza at the beginning of the day as just a means of doing a couple of different dirty jobs with the oven. And they're also using that dough to get rid of leftover scrap ingredients, and then suddenly you have this product, which happened in Naples. It happened in Italy. It was just pizza with scrap. What I think a lot of people that are really into New York pizza culture sort of understand, and that is that Lombardi's is the first pizzeria in America, and then there's sort of this New York pizza family tree that branches off from Lombardi's and is responsible for some of the greatest pizzerias in New York. Is that true? Maybe. Okay, here's the most accurate way I can explain the entire family tree. Okay. Lombardi's opens in 1905. 1905 is when they received the first mercantile license to run a pizzeria, which is not a license that I can find or has really ever existed. And then Totono's opens up in 1924. And Totono's seems to have as much acclaim to New York pizza supremacy historically as Lombardi's. Right. Now, there's some controversy because some people say that, oh, well, he was the pizza maker and Lombardi's was just the pizza maker. We also don't know. Maybe there was another place that opened and then closed, and nobody got a picture of it. The answer to my question is kind of confusing. There are so many people that have claimed to work at Lombardi's without actual concrete evidence. Here's the most likely story. Lombardi's was the first licensed pizzeria in America, where Gennaro Lombardi and Anthony Pero were. Pero then branched off and opened Totono's in 1924. In 1929, John Sasso, who may or may not have worked at Lombardi's, opens John's. The story gets even more confusing when Patsy's in Harlem comes into the picture. Pasquale Patsy Lincieri opens Patsy's in 1933, after also maybe working at Lombardi's. His nephew, Patsy Romaldi, opens up Patsy's Pizzeria under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1990, which then, four years later, changes its name to Romaldi's. You know what I mean? Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? But that stuff doesn't even really matter. What we know is Lombardi's was the first documented pizzeria in New York City. In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi started serving pizza to local factory workers out of his grocery store on Spring Street. Due to his popularity, the store quickly evolved into a full-fledged pizzeria and continued churning out coal-fired pizzas until the mid-'80s when it closed. Luckily, Gennaro Lombardi III and John Brescio, his childhood friend, reopened this iconic restaurant in 1994. Gennaro Lombardi is responsible for bringing pizza as we know it here to America. And he got a lot of the pizzerias started because he had them working here. So you remember Gennaro. You remember the original. Yes. My father used to leave me here when I was six, seven years old. And I would bother him, throw dough balls at him with his grandson. And that's who opened this place. When we reopened, him and the grandson, I'm the worker. That's how far back I go with pizza. And that's how I know good pizza. It sounds like Gennaro was a champion of the neighborhood. He was. And this was all Italian people living here. Soho was where all the factories were. So a lot of guys would stop there in the morning because Lombardi's was open 22 hours a day back then. Wow. They would stop on their way to work, get a pie wrapped in brown paper and string, and then reheat it in the oven that kept the place warm at work. And they had their lunch. Get out of here. One of the things that defines Lombardi's is the coal oven. What is so special about a coal-fired pizza? Let's take coal versus wood. With a wood-burning oven, it goes up real high. And as the wood burns away, the fire goes down. With coal, it burns more steady. So you've got a constant heat. A good pizza has to have high heat because the inside will be light and airy with all the nooks and crannies. The toppings, they'll cook in two minutes. It'll be juicy. That's the key to a great pie. That's the key to a great pizza. Can I invite you to eat some pizza here? Come on in. Wow, this looks good. Ooh, this looks great. Enjoy your slice of history. I will. That's exactly what you said. You could tell that it's cooked fast. The bottom of it is crispy, but yet the top is still moist. And you can definitely taste that it's from a coal oven and not from a wood oven. Definitely. Quality always shows. Right. Always shows up. Whether it's in the person or in food. I'm around pizza every day. I love it. Okay. I love eating.