This is an update of an earlier post after doing some additional research for a presentation I gave on the subject at the Italian Cultural Center in Houston in May, 2023.
 
The sentiment about the Americanness of pizza might best be related by a comment from Gioacchino Gabbuti, General Director of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), in 1998: “when I visited New York as the General Director of ICE….an American friend….asked me a question that left me bewildered: excuse me, Gioacchino, how does one say ‘pizza’ in Italian?” Pizza has become much more Italian in the last quarter century since then, but pizza was long more popular in the U.S. than in Italy.
 
Pizza originated in Italy, to be sure, but it is not originally Italian. This is because pizza as we know pizza is specifically Neapolitan in origin. It’s from Naples, the big, chaotic and historic port city in southern Italy. In 1535 poet and writer Benedetto di Falco explained that “focaccia in Neapolitan is called pizza,” possibly the first written reference to pizza as a foodstuff. And by 1600 there was certainly pizza, bread dough baked in wood-fired ovens, seasoned with garlic, lard and coarse salt, or with caciocavallo cheese and basil being served in Naples.
 
But pizza actually spread more quickly throughout the U.S. than it did throughout Italy, as odd as that may initially seem. Pizza initially traveled with the immigrants from it birthplace Naples and its environs, of whom there were many to the U.S. To note, the Sicilian pizza is also fair part the pizza landscape here. Arriving later, it was derived from the sfincione served in Palermo, a type of spongy focaccia, but that’s for another tale.
 
A brief history of pizza in America until it become popular
 
One of the most important events in the gustatory history of the country seems to have begun officially in 1905 when Gennaro Lombardi, a native of Naples, opened the first licensed pizzeria in America in Manhattan’s Little Italy, Lombardi’s. He had been making versions of that Neapolitan fast food at the bakery in which he worked, which was also being done elsewhere, at least in his neighborhood, since probably a few years before the turn of the 20th century. The New York Tribune noted in 1903 in Little Italy that “apparently the Italian has invented a kind of pie. The ‘pomidore pizza,’ or tomato pie.”  These pizza pies were just the province of these Neapolitans; in Italy at the time, it was not found outside of the vicinity of Naples. “There are only two places in New York where you can get real, genuine Neapolitan pizze. One is on Spring Street and one on Grand. The rest are Americanized substitutes,” reported an informed source, “the Dago,” in a New York Sun piece in the summer of 1905.
 
These pizzas first found an audience with those recently arrived Neapolitans and quickly spread to all the Italians living in the neighborhood. Pizza has proven to be a very easy sell over the years. In the 1920s and 1930s Lombardi’s former employees, all Neapolitans, opened pizzerias in Brooklyn, East Harlem and uptown Manhattan that would be destined to become icons in their own right. But, pizzas were really an ethnic, mostly Italian, specialty until after the Second World War, even in New York City.  Also in the 1920s, pizzerias were opened by Neapolitan immigrants in the Italian neighborhoods of New Haven, Connecticut, Trenton, and Boston. Philadelphia and Chicago were two of the few other cities with Neapolitan pizzaioli and pizza before the Depression. Here is a list of the first pizzerias in various municipalities: 

• 1912 – Trenton, New Jersey
• 1914 – Utica, New York
• 1924 – Chicago
• 1925 – New Haven, Connecticut
• 1926 – Boston
• 1927 – Buffalo, New York
• 1927 – Philadelphia
• 1929 – Poughkeepsie, New York
• 1929 – Columbus, Ohio
• 1935 – San Francisco – Numerous of Ligurians, Tuscans then Sicilians but hardly any Neapolitans
• 1939 – Los Angeles
• 1943 – Washington, DC
• 1948 – Seattle
• 1955 – Houston – Not by Neapolitans or even Italian-Americans

 
Pizza spread throughout the country after the Second World War, as it began to be served well beyond the Italian neighborhoods. One item which emphasizes that is oregano consumption in the U.S. increased an incredible 5,200% between 1948 and 1956 because of the new popularity of pizza and, to a lesser extent, also Italian sandwiches. And, no, the postwar affection wasn’t because of soldiers bringing back the taste for it from Italy.
 
Starting and growing in areas with virtually no competition from pizzerias with Italian antecedents, several regional, national and international pizza companies got their start in the mid-1950s to 1960: Shakey’s in Sacramento in 1954, Pizza Hut in Wichita and Pizza Inn in Dallas in 1958, Little Caesar’s in suburban Detroit in 1959, and Domino’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1960. Commercially made gas and electric pizza ovens, along with large mixers for the dough introduced in the mid-1950s, helped make the creation of the pizzas easier, far less dependent on a seasoned pizza-maker. American business know-how helped even more. The franchise system increased the number of branches and market presence quickly. Even if far from the best pizzas around – the pies usually featured doughier and blander crusts and lower-quality toppings – these pizza chains have been greatly enjoyed by millions over the years. Not incidentally, with tremendous insight, or luck, Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pizza Inn first opened right near colleges and universities whose enrollment grew tremendously with the baby boom from the 1950s on something that these chain pizza joints rode to continued success.
 
An even briefer history of pizza in Italy outside of Naples
 
“Pizza, which was unknown in north Italy before the war” recounted cookbook author Marcella Hazan in her memoir Amacord. Pizzas was difficult to find anywhere outside of the Naples region through the 1950s. Even in southern Italy beyond the greater Naples area, it was not be found. A family friend from Reggio Calabria, the city at the toe of the boot, did not have her first pizza until she arrived in New York in the late 1950s. She said that Naples was the only place in Italy to get pizza then.
 
It came to those other cities with transplanted Neapolitans who traveled north to find work in the industrial boom after the war. For example, in Hazan’s northern region, Parma, a well-to-do and university city, got its first pizzeria in 1960 started by a person from Salerno, south of Naples. Though now popular throughout Italy, pizza has taken hold the most in a city closer to Naples, Rome, which has developed a couple distinctive versions. The first was pizza tonda, a round pizza with a blistered cracker-thin crust that grew out of the Neapolitan versions. Then came pizza al taglio, a long rectangular pizza without Neapolitan antecedents, which is more like a focaccia and sold mostly in take-away places. That has become synonymous with Roman pizza outside of Rome. The Eternal City also currently boasts some excellent pizzerias making version similar to those in Naples.   
 
Mostly just in Naples and environs, then spread by Neapolitans, even slower than in the U.S. in some of its largest cities:

• Rome – 1916 or so
• Milan – 1934 or so, and with the Sicilian-style Spontini opening in 1953
• Turin – After the Second World War or maybe earlier with Pizza al Padellino (or al Tegamino), a different type of pizza that’s baked in small, round pans, “pan pizza,” that was actually from Tuscan restaurateurs
• Parma – 1960

 
It is true what Carol Helotsky wrote in her book Pizza - A Global History (2008) that “Pizza went from being strictly Neapolitan to being Italian-American and then becoming Italian.” More accurately, pizza went from Neapolitan to Neapolitan-American to Italian-American to American then to broadly Italian.

From Roberta's in Houston

Houston Restaurant Weeks (HRW) is nearly upon us. It all begins on Tuesday, August 1 and runs through Monday, September 4, Labor Day. The annual event has raised nearly $19 million since its inception in 2003 and benefits the Houston Food Bank, the country’s largest food bank, which provides assistance to thousands every week. During HRW this year, restaurants will donate $3 per lunch and brunch meal ordered from an HRW menu, and $5 for a $39 dinner and $7 for a $55 one. Dining out for HRW is a fun and easy way to help the disadvantaged in our community. Dining out also helps the restaurants and their staff in what was, before the advent of HRW, one of the slowest times of the year for area restaurants.
 
Below are my top picks for this year listed alphabetically. I’ll probably stray to others, too, as there are many appealing HRW menus.
 
Bistro Menil – New American – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – Two courses are offered lunch beginning with its excellent crab cake that’s paired with a caper and cornichon mayonnaise or the duck confit-topped salad also with pear and spiced pecans, and then one of three three desserts: a lemon tart, a Basque cheesecake, and the favorite crème brûlée. Dinner has three courses that might commence on a blistering evening with the Watermelon and Cucumber Salad then a choice from trio of entrées like Grilled Shrimp Skewer with pineapple and salsa verde or Crispy Duck Confit and after, those desserts. I’ve had good luck during HRW here in the past.
 
Brennan’s – Creole – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – Lunch is the most interesting, with three course for $25 that can include the turtle soup, a sandwich, salad or a pulled pork Benedict and dessert that might be Creole Bread Pudding. And during lunchtime, martinis are just a quarter. These are about two-thirds the size of what’s typical and the supposed limit is just three, but it’s really not a bad deal and something to keep in mind when there’s not much to do in the afternoon. Dinner is nearly as enticing.
 
Carrabba’s (Kirby and Voss locations) – Italian-American – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $39 – Houston’s favorite and best Italian-American outposts – the two original ones owned and run by the Johnny Carrabba and mom – are an especially fine value for HRW lunch for its robustly flavored, familiar fare. The three courses should start with fried calamari spiced with pepperoncini then on to its terrific House Salad and a choice between a couple rich pasta preparations or the Salmon Arugula Salad that’s tossed in a honey balsamic vinaigrette with Mandarin oranges wedges.
 
Da Gama – Indian – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $39 – There are three courses at night for just $39 that can be centered on Peanut Chicken Tikka, Gulf shrimp in a tangy Goan-style tamarind sauce, or a Portuguese coconut Kashmiri chili curry, any of which might make this breezily modern and always-adept Indian even more tempting. Lunch is just two courses, a savory or salad and sweets, and maybe even more of a no-brainer if you can make to the Heights earlier in the day.
 
Etoile – French – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – There are three courses for both lunch and dinner at this tenured French favorite enjoyed for its traditional fare in Uptown, with Maine lobster bisque and beef tartare for both meals. At lunch, the mains are a small filet of sole with capers in brown butter, Coq au Vin with chicken thighs, and French-styled ravioli and risotto preparations. Dinner has more and richer choices, starting with a salad centered by warmed goat cheese en croute, escargot de bourgogne, then on to roasted duck breast or braised beef short ribs. Clafoutis aux nectarines and a couple of other Gallic desserts with almonds provide a sweet finish for each menu.
 
Georgia James – Steak – Dinner, $55 – Three courses at this stylish and somewhat different steakhouse set in a sterile plaza near Buffalo Bayou can begin with its signature Slab Salad highlighted with the deep yellow English Shropshire blue cheese then onto the Hanger Steak that might still be a true onglet steak and finally from a choice from a trio of desserts including a weather-appropriate Pineapple Vacherin.
 
Hamsa – Middle Eastern – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – There’s several cooling dips to start for either meal in this bright stylish space in the Village. The terrific baba ganoush should be one from the salatim, an Israeli array of dips and salads, and there are also a choice of larger portions of hummus including one with ground lamb. Dinner is four courses with vegetarian-centered second a skewer for the third – chicken thighs, tenderloin, shrimp or King Oyster mushrooms – and then one from a trio of desserts. Lunch is a lighter, but with three courses and that’s one of the desserts, too.
 
Hugo’s – Mexican – Dinner, $55 – Dessert should always be on mind at Hugo’s and its siblings, with also-acclaimed sibling Ruben Ortega in charge of the postres. Tarta De Fruta, Tres Leches de Horchata, and Pastel de Chocolate are the HRW dessert choices this year. And you’ve got three appealing courses before that highlighted by a tuna tostada with chipotle mayonnaise, the Filete Oaxaqueño, an eight-ounce petite filet served with mole pasilla, and Pescado a la Veracruzana featuring a seared catch of the day.
 
Indianola – New American – Dinner, $39, Brunch, $25 – Led by executive chef Paul Lewis, likely one of the city’s most underrated toques, the HRW menu this at attractive EaDo spot is an appealing array of locally and seasonally attuned preparations: Mexican-style corn tempered with Tajin, Cotija and lime crema; roasted cherry tomatoes with a miso- and lemon-accented ricotta; Veracruz Grilled Shrimp; Summer Squash Tagliatelle with smoked eggplant in a lemon-butter sauce; then a take on tres leches or Jiffy Pop Baked Alaska for a fun finish.
 
Lucille’s – Southern – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $39 – Three courses for under forty bucks for a dinner at this comfy Museum District stalwart is a certainly an enticement. Gumbo Z'Herbs or Fried Green Tomatoes served with a spicy aioli and goat cheese can start before main plate pleasers like its fried chicken, Shrimp and Grits, or Catfish and Grits, with the fish blackened or fried; and Lemon Icebox Pie, Croissant Bread Pudding or tiramisu to finish. Lunch is two courses: one of the starters and then those Shrimp and Grits or a couple hearty sandwiches.
 
MAD – Spanish – Dinner, $39, Brunch, $25 – The four courses at dinner highlight gastronomic Spain, at least the dishes of the capital, Catalonia and the Basque region with refined versions of traditional items along with some modernist twists. There are four choices for the savory stages and three for dessert. These can be a croqueta or steak tartare at first; tuna tartare or duck salad with fruit and Manchego next; rack of lamb or sauteed shrimp with olive oil and garlic for the entrée; and then on to churros or a brownie version of Basque cheesecake. Always an added attraction here is the city’s most entrancing restaurant bathroom, if a bathroom can be that.
 
Maison Pucha – French – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – Its French bistro theme strays during lunch but the HRW menu is tempting: gazpacho, watermelon salad with goat cheese and mint, Thai chicken salad, and a hefty sixteen-ounce pork shank done osso buco-style and with a Dijon mustard sauce and Cheddar grits. Rainbow trout does receive the Almondine treatment at both lunch and dinner. In the evening there’s also coq au vin with drumsticks and desserts: crepes a l'orange, crème brûlée á la cardamom, or possibly the fruit salad after the pork dish.
 
Musaafer – Indian – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – I had a memorable meal here for HRW last year in what might be the top Indian establishment in the area, certainly the grandest and most beautiful. There’s no dramatic, molecular gastronomy-tricked dessert this year, not even at dinner, and the offerings are a little less generous – a $4 upcharge even for naan or accompanying rice, for example – but the food should be delicious and with a number of crowd-pleasers: chicken seekh kabobs, butter chicken, palak paneer, and Goan fish curry then also a lychee ceviche, char-grilled chicken tikka and laal maas with smoked goat in the evening.
 
Ostia – California Italian – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – A couple of courses are served for the HRW lunch; maybe Caesar Salad or a summery bruschetta then Bucatini Carbonara or a well-turned out white pizza. At dinner, there’s also desserts and heartier main dishes including a version of the famed Barbuto roast chicken. It’s all in a nicely contemporary, breezy setting in the heart of Montrose on Dunlavy.
 
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse (Downtown) – Steak – Dinner, $55 – Arguably the city’s best steakhouse has long done a terrific job for Houston Restaurant Weeks: the offerings, the quality, the value for that quality, service, and setting. The key attraction on the HRW menu is a dry-aged 10-ounce New York strip steak that can be prefaced with a well-crafted Caesar or gumbo featuring turtle and splashed with sherry and then all finished with an excellent key lime pie or New York cheesecake. Though not included in the HRW deal, the remarkably expansive wine list can provide any number of great options to pair with the steak.
 
Picos – Mexican – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $39 – The menus are fine values and with more choices before an upcharge than about any other HRW participant. For dinner, the entrée highlights are chicken breast stewed in a Oaxacan black mole, Carne asada a la tampiqueña, and Pork Shank Carnitas-style. That’s prefaced with a salad, tostada with ceviche or beetroot carpaccio, and finished with one from a quartet of rich desserts. There are two courses for lunch, which can be hearty. You can start with Nachos Jorge that’s topped with cochinita pibil – listed in 500 Things to Eat Before It’s Too Late by the Roadfood couple about a dozen years ago – or a refreshing tostada with ceviche and finish with its excellent spinach enchiladas, tacos al carbon or four other options.
 
PS-21 – French – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – For lunch at Philippe Schmit’s comforting contemporary French bistro, you can get steak frites with a grilled New York strip in a whiskey-peppercorn sauce along with their excellent fries – you’ve got to request accompanying mayonnaise, though – or the Bouchon plate that is a mushroom risotto, a vegetarian croque monsieur bite, and a petite Caesar salad. It’s not-so-weather-appropriate, but the onion soup tempered with sherry might be tough to pass on as a first course. In a similar vein, at dinner, there’s a take on the hefty old school hachis parmentier, braised beef layered with truffle oil whipped potato. Also, a bouillabaisse then a trio of desserts including a classic crêpe suzette.
 
The Lymbar – Pan-Latin – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $39 – A surprising four courses are served for lunch at this playful pan-Latin with strong Middle Eastern notes that’s set in the mixed-use Ion in Midtown. It starts with a choice among empanadas – go with the spinach and cheese or beef kofta – then a salad then an entrée that can be hummus, pasta with chicken, tacos or fried chicken bits and finally a sweet finish that can be the Cordúa-famous tres leches. I imagine the portions will be on the smaller side for all this, but it’s a way to sample a range of the kitchen, at the very least. Dinner is just three courses, but also has a ceviche as a starter and a version of the renowned churrasco over bearnaise sauce and pickled onions.
 
Wild Oats – Texan – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $39 – Three courses for both lunch and dinner with latter just $39 and that can include what is the city’s chicken fried steak – featuring a Wagyu sirloin – shrimp and grits with summertime grilled cork or flank steak fajitas.
 
Xochi – Mexican – Lunch, $25, Dinner, $55 – Hugo Ortega and team’s excellent Oaxacan-themed outpost downtown across from Discovery Green has a welcome eight savory options at lunch like roasted duck tacos and shrimp sautéed with chile de ajo and then choice among desserts, a sorbet with fresh fruit, a coconut chocolate tres leches and a horchata mousse cake. For dinner, there are four courses, a starter to share, another appetizer and a little heftier mains, plus an array of more elaborate desserts.

The chicken fried steak at Wild Oats

Legendary singer and acclaimed interpreter of the Great American Songbook just passed away at age 96.  Here is a little food-related item about Bennett and Houston:
 
In the April 19, 1969 issue of Billboard reported that “Tony Bennett Spaghetti House…the first of the restaurants is scheduled to open in Houston in early August. Five additional units will open in the same city before the end of the year, with dozens more planned in other cities for early 1970.” At least one did open, if briefly, in Town & Country where, “the food was…was very bland,” recalled a rare patron. Lasting longer is, “Benedetto’s, Texas State Hotel, 720 Fannin…a supper club that features an Italian feast, cheek-to-cheek dance music and name Vegas acts,”  run by the singer’s brother, John.
 
The songs of the popular Italian-American singers interpreting the Great American Songbook after the Second World War are a requisite part of the ambiance of Italian-themed restaurants in this country. From that group, oddly, more than Tony Bennett had ties to the city. Vic Damone lived here for years after marrying an oil heiress, and two of three of Frank Sinatra’s kids were married to Houstonians (at least briefly). Nancy Sinatra married singer Tommy Sands – who attended Lanier Junior High and then Lamar High School – in 1960. Frank Sinatra, Jr. married a Houston-area lawyer in 1998. Plus, one of Dean Martin’s very best songs is his 1965 recording of “Houston.”
 
This has been recycled and adapted from my article “A passegiata through Houston’s Italian restaurant history.”

Pete Souza, official White House photographer

Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, the country’s first craft brewery, very lamentably just announced that it is closing. A maker, most notably, of the uniquely brewed Anchor Steam Beer, Liberty Ale, the model for Sierra Nevada’s celebrated Pale Ale and many others, and the strongly flavored and long-lasting Christmas Ale, which had a recipe that changed slightly each season, Anchor was renowned for its exemplary beers and more. It was on the vanguard of a nascent beer revolution in this country that really began a few years after Fritz Maytag took over in the 1960s. The brewery also once had a strong connection to The Ginger Man here in Houston that became the country’s first modern beer bar a couple decades later.
 
In 1985, the beer landscape was very, very different. About the only really interesting American beers to be found in Houston at the time were from Anchor and another Californian, Sierra Nevada. Sam Adams had just been released in Boston that year. There was not even a decent beer brewed in the entire state of Texas. All of this was reflected in the number of taps at The Ginger Man, which were less than a third of what they would later become. Those two dozen or so taps were mostly for British and German beers, which were much more readily found those days.
 
This very different new bar, one centered on beer that wasn’t lightly flavored American lager, generated interest a couple thousand miles away from the father of the nascent microbrewery movement. The Ginger Man’s founder Bob Precious relayed: “Fritz Maytag sent four of his top guys over from Anchor Brewing in San Francisco with, for the first time anywhere, all of the beer he was making on draught (five types). They hung out for days and became part of the scene… and when they returned to San Francisco we heard that they told anyone who would listen that there was something going on down in Houston that was new and probably a little insane.”
 
The Ginger Man in the mid-1980s was then something truly unique in this country. “We had about 25 taps by mid '86. Better beer history minds than mine tell me that would make it the first in the country, if not the world,” Precious recounted. It matured quickly from there, adding taps and labels.

Those five Anchor draft beers that Precious referenced were actually just three to start (thanks to Brock and Chris, who both know much more about beer than I, for the correction): Liberty Ale, Anchor Porter and the Old Foghorn Ale, “without question one of the world’s great barley wines” according famed beer writer Michael Jackson. Later, during the holiday seasons, The Ginger Man would have a kegs of its Christmas Ale not just from the current release but one from the previous year or two, with the strong initial resin flavors of those having mellowed and the beers still in excellent condition. Throughout the calendar, for a some time, the bar poured A Foggy Night in Sierra, a straightforward beer cocktail – a healthy squeeze from a lemon in the glass that was then filled about a quarter the way with Old Foghorn and then finished with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – that proved to be an beguiling, flavorful mixture that was both fairly potent and overly easy to drink.
 
The relationship between Anchor and The Ginger Man would continue for a while. A few years after the initial trip, when my friend Steve Black was a manager, I met a well seasoned Anchor representative making a lengthier-than-typical marketing stopover. That busy night, he had assured the quality of an impressive number their beers there, including more than one Old Foghorn, and continued to sample some more. The Anchor folks appeared to really appreciate The Ginger Man. And I know there were regular visits from the brewery after that. It seemed to be mutually useful and very enjoyable bond while it lasted.
 
Now, both trailblazers are no more.

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

We are now in the heart of rosé season in Houston, which really lasts much of the year here, and those always chilled, usually uncomplicated wines work especially well to start an evening or a meal.  The French gave the world the inspiration with the pale-colored wines from Provence and other rosés from elsewhere in southern France.  As the world of wine has gotten larger and the world warmer, rosés have become much more popular in the last fifteen years or so.  And rosé production has spread widely.
 
Italian wineries are also jumping into the fray and there are many more rosés made in Italy, mostly in places without a tradition with those wines.  As new products, most are trying to find a suitable style.  There are four long-standing areas of rosé production in Italy, only two of which were ever really found here and not terribly widespread.  But at least one is worth checking out, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo.
 
Made with Montepulciano, the same varietal that goes into the region’s red mainstay Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and it does a similarly good of a job with rosés as does Grenache in southern France, if in making much different types of wines.  These are rosés that might be considered almost light red wines, typically featuring a deep garnet color that is many hues from the pale salmon-colored Provencal rosés and with a body matching the color.  The prominent scent of cherries are often on the nose and the smooth medium-bodied wines can be fruity in an Old World way with notes of strawberries, cherries and even orange.  These are food-friendly quenchers that are a little more serious than the usual rosé.
 
At a dinner a couple weeks ago at Davanti sponsored by a wine consortium in Abruzzo, we tried several wines not currently sold in the area, red, white and rosé. The two rosés, both Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo from Torre Dei Beati and Torre Raone, were served to accompany a ravioli in a rich, savory sauce that had a just a touch of spice.  With that, the considerable heat of the 100-degree day that made for a slightly warm dining room filled with three dozen people, and the heft of the wines, made these nice complements to the dish.  They were praised by all of the wine professionals at my table.  Easy to drink, enjoyable and with the acidity and flavors to go well with an Italian preparation.  From the prices of these wines in the UK, I would guess these would probably retail for around $20 a bottle, fair prices.
 
If you enjoy rosés or light red wines and looking for different, but traditional taste of Italy, look for Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo.