DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies: The End

http://www.nj.com/me...son_street.html

The second and third locations I believe will continue to be in business but the original will close Jan 15.

Thanks for the heads up

On any given night, in hot weather or in cold, customers often wait outside for an available seat while the tantalizing aroma of fresh baked dough mingles with the smell of cheese and tomatoes, spilling out every time the front door opens and closes. Inside, with its no-frills setting, the service at booths is as succinct as the non-existent menu. There isn’t much to talk about. Everyone wants a tomato pie and a soft drink. Sausage and plain tomato pies are the traditional favorites.

“When some people starting putting things like pineapple or buffalo chicken on pizza, we didn’t do that. Our customers know what they like and why change what we’ve been successful with,” says Sam, who opened the Robbinsville location four years ago. Now that location has developed a cachet of its own, with customers lined up outside the back door to enjoy a $12 or $15 tomato pie. Salads, printed menus and two bathrooms are its concessions to changing times.

I've never been to the original, only the satellites. Great pizza.

This was the pizza, that is, tomato pie, of my adolescence and the one that has been the benchmark for every other I've eaten. Few measure up, not even DeLorenzo's after the fire that destroyed the coal oven.

Papa's, which opened in 1912 and pre-dates De Lorenzo's, is still in business. I've never been though.

http://www.papastomatopies.com/

Everybody saw this coming, but it's still sad. Between the schlep to Trenton and the ridiculousness of not having a restroom, I didn't go often. Still, an exceptional pizza.

From the Papa's site:

*Tomato Pie versus Pizza:

There are those who say that the Trenton speciality known as Tomato Pie has a thinner, crisper crust, with the cheese sparingly put on the crust before the sauce, whereas a pizza has a thicker crust with sauce first, then plentiful cheese on top. Nick Azzaro says that sign makers charged by the letter, and "PIZZA" is five letters shorter than "TOMATO PIES".


**Mustard Pie is another local delicacy. Mustard is put into the dough before the pie is baked, some people love it and others don't get it. Why don't you be the judge?

In a highly confusing announcement, the "other DeLorenzo pizza" in Trenton has announced it will close its location and move to Robbinsville in early 2013.

There are, and have been, two DeLorenzo pizza making families in Trenton for the past seventy years or so. The other branch of the family closed its pizza restaurant early in 2012.

The first DeLorenzo’s Pizza, which opened shop in the late 1930s on the corner of Hudson Street and Moss Street, was started by DeLorenzo’s uncle, Joe.

But when DeLorenzo’s uncle Joe and his older siblings went off to fight in World War II, it was DeLorenzo’s father, Rick, and his younger siblings that were put in charge of running the family’s growing business.

In 1947, DeLorenzo’s other uncle, Alexander “Chick” DeLorenzo, decided to open a restaurant of his own on 530 Hudson Street. The restaurant was passed down to Chick’s daughter, Eileen DeLorenzo, and her husband, Gary Amico. The two ran the business together until early January of this year, when it closed for good.

Eileen and Gary’s son, Sam runs a DeLorenzo’s in Robbinsville on Route 33.
But the DeLorenzo’s on Hamilton Avenue is the last of the family’s restaurants to leave Trenton.

Pizza

Couldn't compare withe the one on Hudson Street. See my post, above.