Best-known for his White Clam Pizza, Frank Pepe is also credited as the originator of New Haven-style pies. Today, pizza from New Haven, Connecticut, is legendary for its misshapen appearance, thin crust and charred edges—but someone had to start it all, and that someone was Frank Pepe, who in 1925 opened up Frank Pepe Pizzeria…
Lou Santillo started out delivering bread in a horse and buggy. Today, Santillos creates handcrafted pies suited to individual customers’ tastes. Combine three generations of pizza making, an antique oven that’s more than 100 years old, and a passion for the perfect pie, and you’ve got one of the most unique pizzerias in the country:…
Founded in 1953, this Omaha, Nebraska, fixture attracts skilled employees with health insurance and tuition assistance, employs social media and recently rolled out a food truck. After husband and wife Joe and Sebastiana Patane had immigrated from Sicily as young adults, Joe made a living as a carpenter, eventually starting his own fixture company in the basement…
This beloved Midwest institution started out as a fruit market in a town that knew little about pizza. Val and Zena Weiler owned a fruit market in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the 1950s, but they feared the larger grocery chains would muscle them out of business. Their solution? Open a pizzeria instead! Thus, in July 1957,…
This Pennsylvania-based “little pizzeria that could” overcame hardships through innovation and sheer will to succeed. At 19 and 22 years old, brothers Ray and Michael Savokinas were ready to take the plunge into pizza when a local pizzeria owner who was leaving town promised it’d cost only $800 to set up shop. The year was…
Founded in 1948, this Pennsylvania pizzeria’s pies are assembled with the cheese first, followed by the sauce. Pica’s Italian-born founder, Frank Pica Sr., came to pizza through a natural progression: After working in a bakery and then running his own bread route in Philadelphia, he decided to open up a shop where he could make…
From its grand opening on Valentine’s Day in 1955, Miami’s oldest pizzeria began as a true labor of love. After young Frank Pasquarella and his wife, Noreen, visited Miami on their honeymoon, they fell in love with the city and decided to relocate from Ohio and open a pizzeria. On Valentine’s Day in 1955, Frankie’s…
With its fleet of VW Bugs, dancing waiters and hippie attitude, this laidback pizzeria has been rocking Stillwater, Oklahoma, since 1957. Opened in 1957, Hideaway Pizza (hideawaypizza.net) was Oklahoma’s second pizzeria, but it probably would have gone under if Richard Dermer, at age 20, hadn’t taken the helm in 1960. That decade ushered in both…
Even his mother doubted people would pay good money for this thing called “pizza,” but Gus Fricano persisted—and gained a bona fide cult following. In the early 1950s, tavern owner Cosimo Fricano (known as Gus) decided that his menu needed a boost. After seeing a sign that advertised something called “pizza” near Wrigley Field in…
Mary Fazio started this legendary pizza joint in 1959, with $600 and the pots and pans from her own kitchen. In 1959, Mary Fazio wisely took this casual advice from a friend: “You make such good pizza, you should open a restaurant.” The friend’s husband lent Mary one of his vacation cottages and, with help…
