…and his assistants
Years ago, *early* in my club days when I was just getting into the biz, I met this mafioso.
Now, in NYC, you meet a ton of Italians who say they’re connected, just like every single army guy you meet was an Army Ranger or Green Beret so take that with a grain of salt BUT I recall that he really did seem the part.
Anywho, we got to chatting we started talking about pizza. I had my local pizza joint, John’s in Times Square, which is where I lived before I moved to the Upper Best Side.
Him: You know alla the best pizza in NYC comes from Lombardi’s downtown, yeah?
Me: Howso?
Him: See, years ago, Lombardi had four assistants – Totonno Pero, John Sasso, Patsy Lancieri, Patsy Grimaldi – and alla them left Lombardi and opened their own joints. Outta respect for Lombardi, Totonno opened in Coney Island, John’s opened in midtown, Patsy’s opened in Harlem, and Grimaldi opened in Brooklyn.
Me: No kidding?
Him: Yeah, no kidding.
Well, it turns out that alla that was mostly true – the Grimaldi part is the part that’s the most incorrect, at least according to this article.
Honestly, this means that alla what we generally consider to be pizza in the US – not stuff like that casserole people call deep-dish pizza – comes from Lombardi’s.
In any case, I thought of all of this because of the kid and Alison.
See, after the kid’s talent show, because his grandmother, Alison’s mom, was in town, I wanted to bring them both to Patsy’s, which is just a few blocks south of my pad – Patsy’s being one of the five original pizza joints in America if you also count the original, Lombardi’s.
The last time I was there was with Alison, my brother, and some friends, on October 26th, 2013 – I wrote about it here.
Anywho, I heard that it was gonna close soon so I wanted them to try it before it closed but…
Me: Wait, is it closed?
Sara: Looks that way. (checks phone) It closed in January!
Me: What!?! Google said it was still open!
It was not.
Because of all the carbs, I don’t really eat all that much pizza but now I regret not going when I had the chance.
In any case, that’s why we went to the other joint – where we did NOT have pizza.
BUT we actually got a second bite at that same apple, purely by chance.
See, we were supposed to see my SIL, Alison’s sister, for the boys to go swimming this past weekend.
And she just happens to have a Grimaldi in Hoboken so that’s exactly what we had.
To wit, while we didn’t get to have Patsy’s, we still got to have some killer OG NYC-style pizza…in New Jersey.
We can just keep that last part to just the two of us, ok?
Oh, extra credit: If you head to Naples and order pizza from one of their oldest and most respected pizza joints, you’d be ordering from this family’s restaurant:
The Lombardi’s, which opened in 1892.
Here’s famous eater Mark Weins finding out that US pizza comes from Lombardi’s in Naples.
Location: my local supermarket, wondering if four pounds of corned beef is enough
Mood: dog-tired
Music: Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho! (Spotify)
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