A Family Tradition
In the early 1900s, our relative Patsy Lancieri became one of the first pizzeria owners in New York to use a Coal Burning Brick Oven. He opened Patsy’s Coal Burning Brick Oven Pizzeria on 1st Ave in Harlem, NY, and that’s how our family tradition was born. Patsy’s became famous worldwide, with patrons from the nearby movie industry fueling his success.
Stars such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett made it “Their Place”, along with New York Yankees Phil Rizzutto, Joe DiMaggio, and Yogi Berra, who were regulars.
His nephew Pat Grimaldi, who had worked there since the age of 13, opened his pizzeria in Brooklyn in 1990 and enjoyed much success as well.
Uncle Pat and Aunt Carol helped us continue the family tradition and bring our family’s legacy to New Jersey. On July 6, 1993, we opened our Hackensack location. The best part of opening the Hackensack location was meeting my wife Julie.
We opened our second location in Edgewater on December 1, 1997.
On November 1, 2001, we opened our third location in Ridgewood NJ
Brooklyn Pizza Edgewater is closing after 25 years. Our last day will be November 26, 2022.
Our pizza is made the same way it was in the 1930s, with the freshest ingredients, and our house-made whole milk mozzarella.
Here we broke from tradition a little. In order to control the quality of our food, we decided to bring the mozzarella cheesemaking in-house, allowing us to oversee the quality and attention to detail that we wanted to maintain. Fresh house-made mozzarella, imported Italian tomatoes, and baking in our 1000°F coal burning brick ovens give our pizza its distinctive taste.
It’s my honor and privilege to share a bit of our family tradition with you.
We hope you enjoy it!
John Grimaldi & Family
In loving memory of my father Joseph, a talented musician who performed with the stars you see pictured in our stores.
In loving memory of my mother Rose, who helped our dream of starting in the restaurant business. She created many of the dishes on the menu. My mother was also a talented artist and some of her artwork is displayed in our restaurants.