American Pizzeria's

Lombardi's, which is still in business today, was the first pizzeria opened in New York in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi. Lombardi's uses the same recipe today Gennaro Lombardi brought from Naples back in 1897, and the pizza is baked in a coal burning oven. Lombardi arrived in America at the tender age of 14, interestingly he was already a baker. He began working in a bakery in Brooklyn, and a grocery store in Manhattan on Spring Street. It is said that he had a great idea, making pizza at the bakery and selling them at the grocery store. A few years later the owner sold Gennaro the grocery store, but his desire to sell pizza was strong, somehow he knew there was a future in selling pizza. He became the first person to acquire a license to sell pizza in the United States at his store located at 53 ½ Spring Street.

Gennaro built a coal-fired oven in the store, set up some cozy tables and chairs and online games, and began selling tomato and mozzarella pizzas daily. He made his own dough, and cheese if needed; this was the first New York style pizza. Don Gennaro, what he became known as, trained Antonio (Totonno) Pero who opened the first pizzeria in Brooklyn in 1924, Totonno's.

A year later in 1925 Frank Pepe Pizzeria Neapolitan was opened by Frank Pepe, another Neapolitan immigrant; this was the first pizzeria in New Haven, CT and the New England area.

In 1943 a non-Italian man, Ike Sewell, and his Italian partner Ric Riccardo combined ideas and came up with the casserole version of pizza, what we know as Chicago style deep dish pizza, and opened Pizzeria Uno. A combination of Italy's old recipes, the finest meats, fresh vegetables, cheeses, topped with spices made pizza a meal. Call a Pizza in Potsdam is also a pizzeria which adheres to Italian recipes and then bake your pizzas.