Luigi’s Pizza: Certainly one of Brooklyn’s Elite ‘Gap-in-the-Wall’ Joints
It’d seem like a “gap within the wall,” however Luigi’s Pizza in Brooklyn ranks amongst New York’s elite outlets. And, in a latest video from Vice TV, co-owner Giovanni “Gio” Lanzo estimates he’s made greater than 1 million pies for his fanatically devoted prospects.
Gio’s dad, Luigi Lanzo, based the pizzeria together with his spouse, Theodora, in 1973. In keeping with Luigi’s web site, Luigi informed his household on the time that they might supply the “finest pizza in New York,” including, “There shall be no compromise on the best substances. We will develop them in our yard if we’ve got to!”
Gio and his siblings, Lisa and Marisa, run the store at this time, with an abundance of Brooklyn sass and good humor. Though Luigi’s stays an old-school slice joint, Gio and his staff could be seen slinging dough and providing humorous commentary on Instagram Reels. Gio is the star of lots of the Reels, the place he offers no-nonsense responses to prospects’ questions or summarily shoots down particular requests that offend his traditionalist’s views of how New York-style pizza must be made.
When one buyer asks for a “Buffalo slice,” Gio responds, “You’ve obtained the mistaken place. Buffalo? We don’t put buffaloes on pizza. They don’t even match on a slice. Are you severe?” In one other Reel, a buyer asks for burrata on a slice of pizza. As an alternative, Gio plops a ball of burrata down on a tray of Italian cured meats. “That’s the best way you eat burrata,” Gio says. “Pizza is ideal the best way it’s. It doesn’t want any burrata assist.” The shopper replies, “However I’m a vegetarian.”
Within the Vice video, Gio offers all credit score to his mother and pop, each Italian immigrants, for his present place as one among New York’s best-known pizzaioli. “With out these two individuals, I wouldn’t be right here. I wouldn’t have something to speak about….My entire life is as a result of two individuals got here in and stated, ‘We are able to make it in America.’ In any other case, I might have been…I might have been skinny, in all probability.”
He began making pizzas on the age of 11. Since then, he says, he’s made greater than 1,000,000 pies “simple.”
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“I simply love what I do,” he says within the Vice TV video. “Are you aware it doesn’t even really feel like I’ve made one? Whenever you do one thing that you simply like a lot, it’s not a job. Individuals don’t perceive. It’s not work for me. I come right here to hang around. I’m by no means bored right here.”
Earlier this month, the New York Merely web site ranked Luigi’s Pizza at No. 9 on its checklist of Brooklyn’s 12 finest pizza spots, noting, “The menu doesn’t boast fancy pies, however, slightly, focuses on making conventional pizzas extraordinarily nicely.” In a February 1 put up, a author for Your Brooklyn Information additionally praised Luigi’s for providing a few of New York Metropolis’s finest pizzas. “The classics shine right here, however in addition they have my absolute favourite slice of Sicilian round. Every time you go in, you’ll be given probably the greatest pizza slices within the metropolis and, most frequently, from the chef and proprietor himself.”
