America’s Oldest Pizzerias

The Cantalupo family, originally from Naples like many pizzeria owners along the Eastern Seaboard, were trailblazers for pizza on the West Coast. When they established their restaurant in San Francisco’s predominantly Italian North Beach neighborhood, they introduced the first wood-fired brick pizza oven to the region. Tommaso’s holds a significant place in modern American restaurant history, as well. Alice Waters, founder of the influential Chez Panisse in Berkeley, was an admirer of Tommaso’s and its pizzas. Inspired by them, she installed a wood-burning oven similar to theirs in the café above her main restaurant, pioneering the California pizza style that was later popularized by Wolfgang Puck and California Pizza Kitchen.

Jerry Curcurello founded the original Jennie’s in Bridgeport in 1935, naming it after his wife. He sold the business a decade later to Alfonso and Assunta DeSimone, who had been operating a bakery from their Bridgeport home. After relocating several times withing the city, Jennie’s settled in its current location in Monroe in 1998, occupying a thriving 6,800-square-foot space complete with a cocktail lounge. The restaurant remains a family-owned business under the DeSimone’s management. One of their signature pizzas features “hot oil,” which is olive oil infused with chiles. This spicy addition to the Connecticut pizza scene is credited to the Colony Grill in Stamford (which opened as an Irish tavern in 1935 before introducing its own now famous pizza).

Considered part of the “Holy Trinity” of pizzerias in New Haven’s renowned pizza scene, alongside Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana and Sally’s Apizza (which opened in 1938), Modern was originally opened by Antonio Tolli as Tony’s Apizza. It was later renamed State Street Apizza in honor of its address, before adopting its current name in 1944. While ownership has changed hands several times, Bill and Mary Pustari have managed the establishment since 1988. Unlike the coal-fired ovens at Pepe’s and Sally’s, Modern uses an oil- fired oven creating an almost identical effect.The term “apizza,” commonly used to  to describe New Haven-style pizzas, is a local variation of the Neapolitan dialect phrase “‘na pizza” meaning “a pizza,” and is pronounced “ah-beetz.”

Domenico Zuppardi migrated to the New Haven area from Maiori, a town on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, which also is also the hometown of the renowned Frank Pepe. Nearly 90 years later, the family continues to operate the business, with additional locations in the towns of Derby and Ansonia. Much like Frank Pepe’s, Zuppardi’s is famous for its white clam pizza, which some aficionados argue is better than the Pepe original. Ed Levine, the founder of Serious Eats, hailed it as “the best clam pie I’ve ever had”.

Founded by Pasquale “Patsy” Lancieri in East Harlem, then known as the city’s “Little Italy,” this iconic Manhattan pizzeria claims to have popularized the widely-loved thin-crust New York pizza style. It also takes credit for pioneering selling pizza by the slice, a quintessential New York tradition that has since become a tradition nationwide. After Lancieri’s passing in 1975, his widow sold the business in 1991 to Frank Brija, whose son Adem is now co-owner. The brand has expanded with multiple locations across Manhattan, including franchises, as well as branches in Queens, Westchester County, Long Island, and Connecticut.

Santarpio’s traces its roots back to a bakery established by Frank Santarpio in East Boston in 1903, although pizza wasn’t added to the menu until 30 years later. The pizzas served today are occasionally referred to as “Boston style” but they are also seen as a cross between thin-crust Neapolitan and New York styles. In addition to pizza and a single salad option, Santarpio’s is unique in the pizza world for offering “barbecued” skewers of lamb, steak, chicken, or sausage. Today, the business is managed by the fourth generation of Santarpio family.

Sciortino’s has made a full circle journey. Established in Perth Amboy by Paolo and Francis Sciortino in 1932 or 1934, the pizzeria thrived until 2003 when the city claimed the location through eminent domain for urban redevelopment. A year later, the Sciortino family reopened in more a elaborate version, as Sciortino’s Harbor Lights, right across the Raritan River in South Amboy. That place is still going strong, but in 2012, the pizzeria reopened in Perth Amboy, where it is now operated by a fourth generation of Sciortinos.

Joseph and Annal Aloy launched their namesake restaurant, the first pizzeria in the Hudson Valley, during the year of the stock market crash that foreshadowed the Great Depression. Initially catering to  local railroad workers, the restaurant later transformed into Aloy’s Garden Restaurant. By the 1950s, the menu had expanded to include a full range of Italian specialties, yet it remained known for its thin-crust, square-shaped pizza. When chef Chris DiLeo bought the restaurant in 2001, he allegedly had to sign a contract promising to keep the secrets of the pizza crust and sauce confidential.

Luigi D’Auria opened what he named Regina Pizza, or “Queen Pizza,” in the Boston’s North End, marking it as the city’s first pizzeria. However, another North End landmark, Parziale Italian Bakery, claims that it introduced pizza to New England from its bakery counter as early as 1907. D’Auria bought provisions — tomatoes, cheese, and wine — from the grocery store across the street, owned by the Polcari family. In either the early 1940s or in 1956, depending on the source, the Polcaris bought out the D’Aurias. Since then, the Polcaris and/or their relatives, the Buccieris, have managed the business. Today, Regina Pizzeria has expanded into a regional chain with six locations in Boston, five elsewhere in Massachusetts, and one at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.

Frank Pepe, an immigrant from Italy’s Amalfi Coast, is recognized as the inventor of New Haven-style pizza, drawing inspiration from the Neapolitan pizzas of his native country. Characterized by its thin, irregularly shaped crust, a charred bottom from the coal-fired oven, and a light application of cheese, this style has become iconic. There are anecdotes that Pepe originally sold pizzas on the street from a kind of headdress he’d constructed, and later from a wagon, in the early 1920s. What is undisputed is that in 1925, Frank and his wife, Filomena, opened a bakery on New Haven’s Wooster Street, the heart of the city’s Italian community. Specializing in pizza, the bakery evolved into one of the country’s most famous pizzerias and is part of the “Holy Trinity” of New Haven pizzerias, alongside Modern Apizza (established 1934) and Sally’s Apizza (founded in 1938 by Frank Pepe’s nephew Salvatore “Sally” Consiglio). Today, Pepe’s grandchildren manage the business, which has expanded with six other Connecticut locations, plus three in Massachusetts, two in Florida, and one each in New York, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

Antonio “Totonno” Pero, who had previously worked at the pioneering Lombardi’s pizzeria, opened his own establishment in Coney Island, complete with coal-fired oven. He reportedly capitalized on the opening of a new subway station in the area, making it more accessible for New Yorkers from other neighborhoods to visit the beach community. Despite facing multiple setbacks over the years, including a fire in 1997 that closed the restaurant for three months, a more devastating one in 2009 that put it out of commission for nearly a year, and then Hurricane Sandy, which it took three months to recover from, the pizzeria keeps bouncing back. It is still managed by descendents of Pero and their families.

While some pizzerias may exaggerate their founding dates, John’s takes a more conservative approach. It traces its roots to a spot opened by John Sasso on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village in 1929. However, pizza historian Peter Regas from Chicago discovered a previously unknown pizza entrepreneur named Filippo Milone, who by 1903 had opened Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba (named after the pizzeria in Naples that claims to be the world’s oldest, dating from 1738) on Grand Street in SoHo — and then gone on to launch a series of others, handing them off to new proprietors in turn. One of these establishments, likely dating back to 1915, became John’s when Sasso, who may have been related to Milone by marriage, took over. After losing his lease in 1934, Sasso relocated his coal-fired brick oven to the restaurant’s current location on Bleecker Street. In 1954, he sold the business to the Vesce family, who then turned it over to their manager, Pete Castellotti Sr., in 1981. Today, descendants of Castellotti and the Vesces run John’s, along with two other Manhattan locations.

Utica is famous for its tomato pie, a variation of pizza consisting of a semi-thick yeast dough baked on a sheet pan and topped with tomato sauce and sometimes parmesan. Eugenio Burlino, who immigrated from Naples in the late 1800s, began selling this specialty out of his basement as early as 1910. On occasion, he would carry pies around on the street using a large tray. When customers spotted him, they would shout “Hey, scugnizzo” using the Neapolitan term for “street urchin.” Burlino adopted the word as the name for his pizzeria when he opened it. (The “O” in the name isn’t indicative of Irish influence but rather represents the Neapolitan dialect’s definite article.) Burlino’s son, Angelo “Chops” Burlino, took over the business and eventually moved the place to a larger space, expanding the menu beyond just tomato pie and pizza. His son Steven runs the business these days.

Giuseppe “Joe” Papa immigrated to New Jersey in 1910 and began working at Trenton’s first pizzeria, Joe’s Tomato Pies, at the age of 15. Just two years later, he opened his own place, which currently holds the distinction of being the oldest family-owned and continuously operated pizzeria in America. In 1945, a young man named Dominik “Abie” Azzaro went to work for Papa’s and eventually married his daughter, Tessie. Today, their son Nick and his cousin Michael manage Papa’s Pizzeria, which relocated to Robbinsville Township, in 2013. Interestingly, the pizzeria’s famous mustard pie is a relatively recent addition, reportedly originating from a now-defunct Trenton pizza parlor called Shuster’s in the early ’80s. A former employee of Shuster’s introduced the concept to Papa’s after the former establishment shut down.

Lombardi’s has one of the most intricate histories of any pizzeria on this list. The restaurant’s website proudly labels it “America’s first pizzeria” citing its establishment in 1905 by Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi. According to the tale, Lombardi opened a grocery store on Spring Street in 1897 and began selling his tomato pies to local factory workers. He purportedly turned the location into a pizzeria in 1905. However, pizza historian Peter Regas discovered a newspaper ad from 1903 in Il Telegrafo, an Italian-language paper published in New York City, promoting a place called Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba, on Grand Street, managed by Filippo Milone. Additionally, Regas found an ad from 1905 for a pizzeria opened either by Milone as early as 1898 or by another Neapoliitan, Giovanni Santillo, at the address where Lombardi supposedly had his grocery store. More importantly, Regas examined Lombardi’s naturalization papers revealing that he arrived in the U.S. 1904 as a “laborer.” This suggests that Lombardi might have worked for Santillo in 1905, but likely didn’t own the pizzeria. While Lombardi’s holds the title of the oldest American pizzeria still in operation, it hasn’t had a continuous run; it closed in 1984, but was revived a decade later by Gennaro Lombardi III, the founder’s grandson, just a block away from the original location.