L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano P izza is one of those ubiquitous food items that can be prepared in so many different and delicious ways: crusty or chewy, thin or thick, square or round, white sauce or red. In fact, today's pizza is made in much the same way it's been made for the past 500 years, and Naples is generally credited as its birthplace. By the late 1800s, a s I t a l i a n i m m i g r a n t s b e g a n arriving in great numbers in the U S , t h e i d e a o f " p i z z a p i e " crossed the Atlantic with them. Despite growing awareness of this dish, the first pizza recipe was not published in an Ameri- can cookbook until 1936. P i z z a b e g a n t o a p p e a r o n Seattle menus in the mid-1940s when American GIs, who were introduced to Italian food during World War II, started to return home. One of the first Seattle establishments to offer pizza on its menu was the Palace Grill. The Palace Grill opened in 1932 on Pioneer Square, and was purchased by the Daverso brothers, Frank and Julius, in 1946. The brothers, who had previously worked in a moving and storage company called Owl Transfer, added pizza to their menu around 1948. At that time, pizza was not well known and people were at a loss as to how to describe it. A 1949 story in The Seattle Times, that featured the Palace Grill and its specialties, described pizza as "the hot pastry that looks like a phonograph record, c o v e r e d w i t h m u s h r o o m s , cheese and tomatoes." A r o u n d t h a t s a m e t i m e , Angelo Constantino, who owned the West Seattle Italian Import Grocery, started making pizzas in the back of his store. He froze as many as 400 or 500 a week, selling most of them locally but shipping others around the coun- try, as far away as Washington, D.C. In 1950, Ricardo's Spaghetti Bar began boasting that its piz- z a s w e r e t h e f i r s t o f f e r e d i n Seattle. The restaurant ran an ad in the Seattle Times that pro- claimed: "New Yorkers are rav- ing over this Italian favorite. Baked with Muzzarella [sic] and i m p o r t e d P a r m e s a n c h e e s e s , green olives and anchovies. Dif- ferent and mighty good!" B y t h e 1 9 5 0 s , p i z z a w a s growing in popularity. Make- your-own-pizza recipes were printed in the local papers, and ran the gamut from a Maine sar- dine pizza to one that used an English muffin as its base. One recipe touted the "skillet pizza" which used a can of tuna fish. In 1956, Carmen Finamore RITA CIPALLA Seattle and the Northwest pizza wars franchises, not to mention a small fortune. When Pagliacci opened, the pizzeria did not even have a cash register or a safe. It was a year before anyone got around to putting up a sign. The pizze- ria went on to establish its own firsts in the pizza business: first in Seattle to hand-toss its fresh d o u g h , f i r s t t o b a k e p i z z a s directly on hot bricks, and first to offer a selection of pizza-by- the-slice options that attracted a devoted following. Centioli-McTigue eventually bought out her partners and, over the years, continued to grow Pagliacci until it was sold in 2000 to Seattle natives Matt Galvin, Pat McCarthy and Pat McDonald. On July 26, 2018, Pagliacci shuttered its inaugural store on University Avenue, c l o s i n g t h e d o o r a s w e l l o n a n o t h e r c h a p t e r i n S e a t t l e ' s pizza wars. appeared on the pizza scene. Originally from the Abruzzo region of Italy, he opened the Abruzzi Pizza House with an investment of $1,200. The place had large windows so people w a l k i n g b y c o u l d w a t c h t h e pizza being formed and tossed. At one time or another, most of the local Italian-American com- munity came through its doors, from politicians and priests to police officers and deliverymen. I n a n i n t e r v i e w w i t h t h e Seattle Times in 2000, son Joe Finamore discussed the early d a y s o f t h e r e s t a u r a n t . "Abruzzi's was a colorful place, like you'd find in New York," Finamore said. "You'd get lines out the door, and a sailor com- ing in with a case of beer on one shoulder and a blonde on each arm. A lot of local pizza places g o t t h e i r s t a r t b e c a u s e o f Abruzzi's, which trained many people. Before that, Seattle did- n't know what pizza was." That might have been the r e a l i t y a c c o r d i n g t o t h e Finamore family, but not for the Daverso brothers. The brothers placed large print ads position- ing the Palace Grill as "Seattle's O r i g i n a l P i z z a H o u s e . " T h e Daverso family ran the restau- rant until 1964, when it was renamed Rudy's Italian Restau- rant. By 1960, the struggle for pizza supremacy got a bit spici- er. The Northlake Tavern, locat- ed near the University of Wash- ington campus, started offering pizza on its menu in 1959. The tavern soon became famous for its ultra-gooey pie, and North- lake began advertising its pizza as the "Best Darn Pizza Any- where." Today, a long-time Seattle f a v o r i t e i s P a g l i a c c i , w h i c h opened its doors in 1979 with a single location on University A v e n u e . I n t h e i n t e r v e n i n g years, Pagliacci has expanded to 26 locations regionwide. Pagliacci was founded by Dorene Centioli-McTigue, with her brother and a cousin. The family came from a food indus- t r y b a c k g r o u n d . D o r e n e ' s father, Gill Centioli, the son of Italian immigrants, ran a restau- rant in downtown Seattle called Gill's Beachhead and Wheel Room. In the late 1940s, Gill heard about something called "fast food" at a place in Califor- nia run by the McDonald broth- ers. He hopped in his car and drove down the coast to check it out. L i k i n g w h a t h e s a w , h e brought the concept back to Seattle, starting with a 19-cent hamburger stand that he opened i n 1 9 5 0 i n R a i n i e r V a l l e y . When he retired in 1983, Gill Centioli had amassed a chain of 4 2 K e n t u c k y F r i e d C h i c k e n Pagliacci Pizza, which opened its doors in 1979, was the first pizzeria in Seattle to hand-toss its fresh dough. (Pagliacci) SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY

• Cover