Meet the Family Behind the Recipe
Every restaurant has a founding story. Ours starts with a notebook - a battered, flour-dusted, tomato-stained notebook that my grandfather Franco carried from Naples to New York in 1958, and that still lives in a drawer under the register at Pizza House. Today we want to introduce you to the family behind the recipes.
Nonno Franco, 1958
Franco Ferretti arrived in New York with two suitcases, a set of copper pots and a notebook full of recipes written in a mix of Italian and shorthand only he could decode. He worked in three kitchens for ten years, saving every dollar, until he bought a tiny storefront on West 21st Street. The first Pizza House menu was hand-written on a chalkboard. It had nine items. Four of them are still on our menu today.
Mamma Elena, 1984
Franco’s daughter Elena took over in the eighties and did something radical: she wrote the recipes down properly. She standardized the dough formula, the oven schedule and the sauce ratios - turning her father’s folk wisdom into a repeatable system. That is the moment Pizza House went from a family kitchen to a real restaurant while somehow staying a family kitchen. Elena also added the desserts: her tiramisu recipe is the one we still use, verbatim.
The Backyard Oven
The best thing Elena ever built was not in the restaurant. It was the brick oven in the family’s backyard, assembled over one summer with help from half the neighbourhood. Every Sunday for twenty years, the family gathered around it: dough thrown by the kids, sauce by the adults, and a rotating cast of neighbours bringing whatever they had. That oven is why we still believe pizza is a communal thing - and why our dining room is designed around one long, shared table.
Us, Today
Today the kitchen is run by Elena’s son Marco and his cousin Lucia - and the notebook is still the law of the land. When we argue about a recipe, we open the drawer. When we add a special, it has to earn a page in the book. And when you eat at Pizza House, you are eating from a recipe trail that crosses three generations, one ocean and a thousand Sunday ovens.
Next time you are in, ask to see the notebook. We will show you - it is usually propping up the register anyway.
Lucia Ferretti
Lucia's desserts end every meal on a high note - tiramisu, cannoli and gelato made in-house daily. She also runs our test kitchen.
Vera Petrov
This made me tear up a little. My grandmother's recipe notebook is my most prized possession too.
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Lucia Ferretti
Notebooks are the real family tree. I am glad yours is safe!
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George Whitfield
The part about the backyard oven being rebuilt brick by brick is beautiful.
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Nina Alvarez
Now I understand why the place feels so warm. It really is family.
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Peter Novak
Great storytelling. This is why local spots beat chains every time.
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