FOOD+DRINK
LO C AL F L AVO R
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER Geno D’s Pizza comes straight from the Jersey Shore, with love baked into every pie BY ANDY SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER TAYLOR
ON A FRIDAY IN JULY, Geno DiPaolo emerges from his stall at 7th Street Public Market with misty eyes. “I’m just so grateful to be doing this again,” he says. He surveys the food hall, then returns to the oven. It’s the grand opening for Geno D’s Pizza in uptown—and the rebirth of a business that once operated nearly 600 miles north of Charlotte. As we chat, Geno, 58, gestures toward a wall beside the cash register, where a laminated 1989 Asbury Park Press clip identifies a 20-something Geno as the Jersey Shore’s “Pizza Guy.” In the black-and-white photos, he serves his popular “Grandma-style” pies to a long line of customers. Geno operated that original, standalone Geno D’s in Toms River, New Jersey, for 35 years. He would take his daughter,
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Gena, to work there every weekend. “I would beg him to,” she says, “and he’d let me shred the cheese, roll the dough, and taught me how to use the fryer. It was always a dream to do this with him.” The comeback is a collaboration between father and daughter. When they opened, Gena was 25, the same age as Geno when he opened the original, and she manages the business with her father. They’d been talking about reviving the brand for years, ever since the DiPaolos moved to the Charlotte area in 2009 in search of what Gena calls “a new beginning.” After they arrived, Geno joined the staff of Pure Pizza, which until recently
CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // NOVEMBER 2021
inhabited his stall at the uptown market. He worked alongside celebrated breadmaker Peter Reinhart yet always hoped to make his own recipes again. Meanwhile, Gena went to high school in Concord and entered the service industry, working at 7th Street Public Market businesses and in fine dining. She learned to work in both front-of-house and the kitchen but now considers customer service her forte. When Pure Pizza closed its 7th Street stall in 2020 (while continuing to operate its Plaza Midwood location), the DiPaolos decided to bring Geno D’s back. “(Geno) of course learned and experimented during his time at Pure Pizza. You’re always learning,” Gena says. “But
