Gennaro Lombardi was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 immigrant who moved to the US in 1897. He opened a small grocery store in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's Little Italy

Little Italy, Manhattan

Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...

. An employee of his, Antonio Totonno Pero, also an Italian immigrant, began making pizza for the store to sell. Their pizza became so popular that Lombardi opened the first US pizzeria in 1905, naming it simply Lombardi's

Lombardi's

Lombardi's claims to be the first pizzeria in the United States, founded in 1905 in Little Italy, Manhattan. The business started out as a grocery store at 53 Spring Street in 1897 opened by Gennaro Lombardi. In 1905 his employee Antonio Totonno Pero began selling tomato pies wrapped in paper and...

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Although Lombardi was influenced by the pies of Naples, he was left with no choice but to adapt pizza to America. The wood-fired ovens and were substituted with coal powered ovens and , and so began the evolution of the American Pie. In 1924, Totonno left Lombardi's and followed the expanding New York subway system to Coney Island

Coney Island

Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....

 where he opened Totonno's

Totonno's

Totonno's is a Coney Island pizzeria established by Antonio "Totonno" Pero. He was an employee at the Lombardi's pizzeria on Spring Street in New York's Little Italy that was established in 1905 when he began selling tomato pies cooked in a coal oven and wrapped in paper and tied with a string. In...

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