John's of Bleecker Street, simply known as John's Pizzeria, is a historic

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. A pizzeria may offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then takes the prepared food with them in a pizza box. A pizzeria may deliver food to ...

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightlife, nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood popular today for music venues and comedy as well as a ...

in the

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Founded in 1915, the pizzeria serves coal fired

brick oven A masonry oven, colloquially known as a brick oven or stone oven, is an oven consisting of a baking chamber made of fireproof brick, concrete, stone, clay (clay oven), or cob (cob oven). Though traditionally wood-fired, coal-fired ovens were c ...

pizza prepared in the style of a tomato pie. In 2015, it was ranked the 10th best pizzeria in the United States by

TripAdvisor Tripadvisor is an American company that operates online travel agency, travel agencies, comparison shopping websites, and mobile apps with user-generated content. Its namesake brand, Tripadvisor.com, operates in 40 countries and 20 languages, and ...

. John's is known for its graffiti-carved wooden booths where any patron can carve their name. The pizzeria does not serve slices, only whole pies cooked in an oven, along with

calzone Calzone is an Italian oven-baked folded pizza. A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in an oven and stuffed with prosciutto or salami, mozzarella or ricotta, and Parmesan or pecorino, as well as an egg. Different regio ...

s, and accepted cash only until May 2016, when it began accepting credit cards.

History

John's was believed to be founded in 1929 by John Sasso when it was originally located on Sullivan Street in

. However, documents show the pizzeria was actually opened in 1915 by Filippo Milone. John Sasso, who was related by marriage, took over in 1925. In the 1960s, Augustine (Chubby) Vesce purchased John's Pizzeria. He and his wife Rose became the owners of John's until 1980–81. Augustine suffered from health issues and offered 40% of the restaurant's shares to the current manager at the time, Pete Castellotti Sr., if he continued to manage the business, allowing Augustine to retire. A year or two later, Castellotti opened up John's on 64th St, moved to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and opened John's of New York in Port Charlotte, letting his two children Pete Castellotti Jr. and Lisa Free run John's of Bleecker Street together with his longtime co-worker Robert "Bob" Vittoria. Castellotti's ex-wife Madeline left her job as a personnel director of

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP (known as Cadwalader) is a law firm based in New York City. It is the city's oldest law firm and one of the oldest continuously operating legal practices in the United States. Attorney John Wells founded the pra ...

, a Manhattan law firm, to open a John's Pizzeria in the eighties on the Upper West Side. She opened John's Pizzeria on

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

in 1994. In 1993, Bob Vittoria became the majority partner of John's Pizzeria on Bleecker. He is a nephew of the Vesce family.

Ratings

John's has been highly rated throughout its operation. As of 2011, Adam Kuban of

Serious Eats Serious Eats is a website and blog focused on food enthusiasts, created by food critic and author Ed Levine. A Serious Eats book was published by Levine in 2011. Serious Eats was acquired by Fexy Media in 2015 and then by Dotdash in late 2020. ...

considered it an NYC Quintessential pizza for connoisseurs.

References

External links

* {{Restaurants in Manhattan 1929 establishments in New York City Greenwich Village Italian restaurants in Manhattan Pizzerias in New York City Restaurants established in 1929

History

Ratings

See also

References

External links