The pizza community

BY TRACY MORIN

Years before Pizza Hall of Fame inductions hit every issue of PMQ Pizza Magazine, there were just a couple of handpicked members. One was the oldest still-operating pizzeria in the United States, Lombardi’s in New York’s Little Italy. The other was Domenico DeMarco.

Dom, as he was known, opened Di Fara Pizza—tucked into a corner on Avenue J in Brooklyn—in 1965 after arriving in the States from Caserta, Italy, and he kept it thriving until his death in March. “Nobody has been more influential on the New York pizza scene,” says Scott Wiener, owner of Scott’s Pizza Tours in New York. “He showed that a simple slice shop can be transcendent. Dom singlehandedly elevated the New York slice by showing that it’s possible to make next-level pizza in a modest corner pizzeria.”

Dom was known for his painstaking, slow-as-molasses approach to pizza making: every piece of basil and shred of mozz arranged just so to craft a pie that was often hailed as one of New York’s best. “Standing behind the counter with him at his shop was like being backstage at a concert,” recalls Tom Boyles, PMQ’s former editor in chief and current senior account executive. “People were three deep waiting on pizza, but no one was complaining—and Dom was in no rush. He would stop working on one pizza and look over in the oven, reach in (with his bare hand!) and spin the pan. When the pizza was ready, he’d pull it out, take a paper plate, grind cheese on an old manual cheese grater that was bolted to the corner of the counter