NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Lombardi’s claims to be the oldest pizzeria in America… but a researcher says, “Not so fast!”
As the story goes, Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi began serving pies in 1905 and that was the starting point for today’s $45 billion pizza industry in the United States.
But wait! Research Peter Regas, of deep-dish-centric Chicago, has found evidence that Lombardi’s wasn’t first.
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Regas, who is writing a book about the history of pizza, says two other men had established a food business at the NoLita location and served pizza a year before Lombardi’s.
He also found evidence of other food establishments in the city that were serving pizza as far back as 1895.
He believes that pizza could have been introduced in New York as early as the 1880s.
Regas' discovery was revealed in a post by the U.S. Pizza Museum.