John's of Bleecker Street

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John's of Bleecker Street
John's of Bleecker Street
Interactive map of John's of Bleecker Street
Restaurant information
Established1915
Owner(s)Peter Castellotti Sr.
Robert "Bob" Vittoria
Previous owner(s)Filippo Milone
John Sasso
Rose Vesce and Augustine "Chubby" Vesce
Food type Italian-American pizzeria
Location278 Bleecker Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, 10014, United States
Coordinates 40°43′54″N74°00′12″W / 40.73161870°N 74.00344680°W / 40.73161870; -74.00344680
Website www.johnsofbleecker.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
The "John's Original" pizza The "John's Original" pizza.jpg
The "John's Original" pizza

John's of Bleecker Street, simply known as John's Pizzeria, is a historic pizzeria on Bleecker Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1915, [1] the pizzeria serves coal fired brick oven pizza prepared in the style of a tomato pie. [2] [3] In 2015, it was ranked the 10th best pizzeria in the United States by TripAdvisor. [4] [5]

Contents

John's is known for its graffiti-carved wooden booths where any patron can carve their name. [6] The pizzeria does not serve slices, only whole pies cooked in an 850 °F (454 °C) oven, along with calzones, and accepted only cash until May 2016, when it began accepting credit cards. [2] [3] [7]

History

John's was believed to be founded in 1929 by John Sasso when it was originally located on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village. [8] [9] However, documents show the pizzeria was actually opened in 1915 by Filippo Milone. John Sasso, who was related by marriage, took over in 1925. [1]

In 1953, Sasso sold the restaurant to his relatives, Augustine and Joe Vesce. Sasso sold the restaurant to relatives Augustine and Joe Vesce — Vittoria’s uncles — in 1953. In the early 1980s, the business was purchased by the Vesce's nephew, Bob Vittoria, who had worked there as a teenager, and his business partner, Peter Castellotti. [10]

Castellotti's ex-wife Madeline left her job as a personnel director of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, 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 in 1994. In 1993, Bob Vittoria became the majority partner of John's Pizzeria on Bleecker. He is a nephew of the Vesce family. [11] [12]

Critical reception

John's has been highly rated throughout its operation. [13] As of 2011, Adam Kuban of Serious Eats considered it an NYC Quintessential pizza for connoisseurs. [14]

Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, reviewed the restaurant in 2016 during one of his "One Bite" pizza reviews and gave the restaurant a 9.3 score, one of the highest scores ever. [15] The restaurant has been featured at the One Bite Pizza Festival, a New York pizza festival by Dave Portnoy and organized by Medium Rare. [16] [17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Bruns, Kendall (February 5, 2019). "Lost Forefathers of Pizza in America Discovered". US Pizza Museum. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  2. 1 2 Olmsted, Larry (December 10, 2015). "John's of Bleecker Street: NYC pizza that lives up to the hype". USA Today . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Stern, J.; Stern, M. (2014). Roadfood. Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony. pp. pt161-162. ISBN   978-0-7704-3453-3 . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  4. ↑ Hunter, Marnie (July 29, 2015). "TripAdvisor picks America's best pizza". CNN. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  5. ↑ Conley, Trevor (July 30, 2015). "New York City has 3 of top 10 pizza joints in the U.S." NYC Sun Times. Archived from the original on November 26, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  6. ↑ "The best pizza places in America, according to TripAdvisor". Fox News. July 4, 2015. Archived from the original on July 29, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  7. ↑ Levine, Ed (November 6, 2002). "Pizza 2002: The State Of the Slice". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  8. ↑ Whitson, C.; Gjesteland, T. (2015). Passion for Pizza: A Journey Through Thick and Thin to Find the Pizza Elite. Agate Publishing. p. pt152. ISBN   978-1-57284-746-0 . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  9. ↑ Pizza Today. Pro Tech Publishing and Communications. 1988. p. 41. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  10. ↑ Blumberg, Deborah Lynn (August 4, 2004). "75 years of John's pizza and the Village: That's amore". amNewYork. Archived from the original on September 2, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2026.
  11. ↑ Witchel, Alex (June 23, 1993). "AT WORK WITH: Pete Castellotti; The Whole Is Greater Than the Slices". The New York Times . Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  12. ↑ "John's Pizzeria family to go to court over their empire". Daily News . New York. March 9, 2016. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  13. ↑ New York E-Guide. Eyewitness Travel Guides. Dk Publishing. 2005. ISBN   978-0-7566-0890-3 . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  14. ↑ Kuban, Adam (September 9, 2011). "NYC Quintessential: John's Pizzeria of Bleecker Street". Serious Eats. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  15. ↑ "John's of Bleecker Street Reviews". One Bite. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  16. ↑ "John's of Bleecker St". One Bite Pizza Fest. Retrieved January 3, 2026.
  17. ↑ Phillips, Tess (September 17, 2025). "Dave Portnoy's One Bite Pizza Festival made its return to NYC". amNewYork . Retrieved January 3, 2026.
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