Over the span of being here for three years, I’ve learned Village School has the best traditions out of any school I’ve attended. Out of my top 3: the canoe trip (which was ruined — thanks Jared Gomberg and Sam Director); IHOP and Bowling and the Pizza Taste Testing, which is my favorite. The pizza trip consists of being dropped off by the Brooklyn Bridge. Next, the plan is to walk through Manhattan and hopefully get to the original ice cream factory in Chinatown, and then back over to DUMBO. But the best part of the whole trip is the pizza taste testing two rival pizza places named Grimaldi’s and the other one named Julianas.
But perhaps, besides tasting both of these legendary pizza joints, the most interesting part of the contest is the backstory behind the rivalry and why it all started. The founder of Grimaldi’s pizza, Patsy Grimaldi, was taught to make pizza when he was 10 by his uncle, Patsy Lancieri, who owned a pizza joint in Italian Harlem in 1941. Decades later, Grimaldi decided that he was going to open up his own pizzeria in Manhattan.
Before he even opened, he found out that those coal fired ovens he would use were illegal in New York. Grimaldi knew that using a coal fired oven was the best way to cook a pizza. All things considered, Grimaldi opened up a pizza shop in Brooklyn, New York under his own name called, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in 1990.
In 1998, Grimaldi retired and sold his name and franchise, excluding the locations in Hoboken, to a man by the name of Frank Ciolli. In 2011, Ciolli’s lease was declined a renewal, so he renovated an old bank and moved a block away from the original location, now landing on 1 Front Street in Brooklyn.
Very shortly after the initial move, Patsy Grimaldi made a triumphant return from retirement at age 80. After months of constant bickering, complaints to the state and a lawsuit or two, Patsy Grimaldi was able to open a new pizzeria. Since Grimaldi already sold his name to Frank Ciolli, he had to change the name of his restaurant. Now we have Juliana’s, named after Patsy Grimaldi’s mom.
The victory? Patsy Grimaldi got the original location where his old pizzeria used to be, 19 Old Fulton Street.
The trip was a success. We ended up not having enough time to go through the fringes of Chinatown, and crossing the Manhattan Bridge, due to heavy traffic on the way to Brooklyn. Plus, the Brooklyn Bridge is much more enjoyable to cross. The students and teachers both seemed to like Juliana’s pizza better than Grimaldi’s. Going on this trip once again confirmed why it is my favorite trip. It is sad that this was my last time doing this trip with Village.