Divine intervention played a role in keeping this little Illinois underdog—now famous for its two-crusted Double Decker pies—afloat when it first opened in 1957. When most teens in the ’50s were cruising around town and lining up dates, 17-year-old Bill Kwiatkowski was embarking on entrepreneurship, purchasing a tiny sandwich shack in Mundelein, Illinois. He had…
After nearly 60 years in business, this Cleveland-area pizzeria keeps up with the times through aggressive marketing and social media strategies. Not long after opening Master Pizza (masterpizza.com) in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, in 1955, founder Ken Petti was primed for impressive growth. By 1960, he took on four partners to start franchising—the first business to…
Credited as the first pizzeria in the country, this Little Italy institution has been churning out coal-fired pies—and inspiring young pizzaiolos—for nearly 110 years. When Gennaro Lombardi, a bread baker from Naples, Italy, set up shop in New York’s Little Italy in 1905, he forever changed the course of American eating habits. Serving the then-predominantly…
A Mountie named Jim Treliving helped turn this Alberta, Canada, pizza store into a powerhouse with more than 400 locations across North America. In 1964, Greek immigrant Gus Agioritis opened Boston Pizza (bostonpizza.com) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with plans for steady growth. But even he couldn’t have predicted how far it would come—thanks in part…
From the start, Donatos founder Jim Grote used precise measurements to ensure consistency and turned the “pizza fad” into a 154-location powerhouse. In 1963, Jim Grote’s dad famously warned him, “This whole pizza thing is just a fad.” But with $1,300 borrowed from his father and future father-in-law, Grote opened his first Donatos (donatos.com) pizzeria…
From Broadway beginnings in 1964 to 400 locations today, this fast-growing pizzeria served cheese slices to Ed Sullivan in its early years. Naples, Italy, native Michele Scotto opened Villa Pizzeria (now called Villa Italian Kitchen) in 1964 with a handful of authentic old-world recipes and a commitment to hospitality and quality ingredients. Located next to…
This Coney Island favorite attracts crowds year-round—and from around the world. Zagat once claimed of Totonno Pizzeria Napolitana (totonnosconeyisland.com), “Only God makes better pizza.” And this legendary pizzeria has certainly received its share of cult-like worship since its beginnings in 1924, when Anthony “Totonno” Pero opened his own pizzeria in Brooklyn’s Coney Island (he had…
This block-long Brooklyn institution has been serving up spumoni and iconic square slices for more than 70 years. Ludivico Barbati learned from a local baker how to make spumoni and Italian ices in a garage in 1938. At first, Barbati, who had emigrated from Italy in 1917, sold his products in a horse-driven wagon up…
“Once you think you know everything,” Gary Amico says, “that’s when things go bad.” The De Lorenzo’s pizza lineage goes back four generations to Italian immigrants Pasquale and Maria De Lorenzo, who helped their four sons (Jimmy, Joe, Johnny and Alexander or “Chick”) open a tomato pie restaurant in 1936. Eventually, Chick opened his own…
This casual concept is one of the few remaining original purveyors of old-school bar pies in eastern Massachusetts. With a son on the way and a desire to open his own business, World War II veteran E. James Jamoulis bought the Cape Cod Café in Brockton, Massachusetts, in 1947. The bar, like others in the…
