The Shakey’s in Dallas, at least, in the early 60s had the kitchen in the middle and on the larger side served beer, but us kids had to go to the smaller side which was dry. Liquor and evidently beer rules were strange in those days in Texas.
Later living in Houston, in the mid 70s, I would pick up Shakeys to go and take to my GF’s apartment. The carry out box hadn’t been perfected, and was only corrugated cardboard flat sheets held together on the sides with a primitive and ineffective tab system. Driving home in my new Triumph TR7, I placed the pizza on the console and attempted to hold it down with my right elbow. Taking a S curve, without slowing down, the pie slid out of the box and landed on the passenger seat, the still bubbling cheese going further afield than the crust. The dairy product fused itself to the fabric. Never was sure if was petrified cheese on the seat, or melted synthetic fabric, but the scar was never removed.
When I was a teenager, back in the 70s, my parents would take us to Shakey's a lot. It was a treat because, unlike hamburgers and hot dogs, you really couldn't make decent pizza at home back then. I don't recall much about the pizza but we were all addicted to those Mojo potatoes. The thing about kid's pizza is that parents usually kept it simple. They would usually order a pizza with pepperoni. (or a pizza where the other half was just cheese if someone didn't like pepperoni.) Then in college I was exposed to the Chicago style with tons of toppings. Usually now, the only time I have pizza is when they throw a pizza night at work where the bosses buy a bunch of cheap pizzas for us with a selection of pizzas with various toppings. (And get criticized at by the vegans for not having any decent vegan options.)
Thanks for the great article. Shakey's in Palm Springs, California was my formative pizza experience. I loved it. Big long tables with benches filled with baseball and softball teams celebrating their wins (or nursing their wounds over losses), families, music, a big window where you could watch the pizza makers at work, very large red plastic glasses filled with crushed ice and coke or your other favorite soft drink. This was around 1961 or so. They served wine from taps labeled "Burgundy" and "Chablis". In my memory the pizza was very good. Crispy crackerlike crust (delicious), good sauce and plenty of cheese. I'm not sure what I would make of it today but I remember it very fondly.
I was ten or eleven when I had my first pizza and it came out of a Chef-Boy-Ardee box bought by my father, a WWII vet, who wanted us to taste pizza. We kids loved it, not knowing any better. My second adult job was at a Shakey's Pizza Parlor which featured a player piano and Friday banjo nights. That's where I learned to make my own pizzas from scratch (except for the dough, and even Shakey's bought that readymade). I was sad that Shakey's disappeared, but we recently discovered one still operating in Boise, Idaho. They told us there are several Shakey's in Mexico because it's now a Mexican-owned company.
Banjos? For our family, the draw was always the Cap'ns Galley Pizza & Pipes-- just called Pizza and Pipes-- because the Old Man was an huge George Wright fan, lamenting the day they tore down the San Francisco Fox Theater. Going to Pizza and Pipes as a kid was mesmerizing, what with the thunder of the huge pipe organ, the
distinct sourdough-like tangy pizza crust, and a sneaky sip of Pop's beer. Back then, no one blinked at couple teaching their kids about moderate libation in public.
I'll agree that food was highly regional in Italy and pizza was not common beyond Naples until relatively recently, but it spread throughout Italy the same way other foods did, through internal migration of Italians. The idea that, '... it happened mostly because American tourists to Italy were desperately trying to find the “real thing”', is risible. Thousands of southern Italians moved to the industrial north after WWII (some before that). They brought their foods with them.
I am an American living in Turin, the fourth largest city and the first capital of the united Italy. At least 2/3 of the inhabitants have roots in the south of Italy. When I enter a local restaurant, unless it is specifically Piemontese, it will have a range of dishes from throughout Italy... most of them completely unknown to Americans.
The real truth is that pizza is a modern creation the most popular by product of the Columbian Exchange, tomatoes from Mexico meet bread from the old world, but it’s origin place, it’s birth is Naples, which yes at the time was not part of the modern Italian republic but the peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean on which it lies has been called Italia for millennia. Stop treating Italians differently than you would any other culture, you ruined a perfectly good article about pizza history with your unnecessarily inflammatory erasure of Italian culture. Go to naples & wear a signboard saying “ la pizza non è italiana” and “report” back to me. 2/2
A good article, well researched, interesting history that’s not necessarily new to those in the pizza industry, but just one issue. Why the clickbait title? Why the provocation of Italian’s & Italian diaspora? Pizza was a regional food, found almost exclusively in Naples, ok yes those of who understand our history already knew that. The diaspora spread it NYC, new haven, trenton, Buenos Aires, & São Paulo, ok yes we are aware & some us have visited all those various locations. Then comes the post war commodification & industrialization of the pizza industry by mostly non-Italian Americans, sure, again we are aware of this. But as an Italian-American I’m confused why you feel the need to erase the first two parts of the story. Quantity does not equal origin story. Pizza is Italian. You yourself clearly spell out it’s origins. Why the provocative erasure of our culture? Does starbucks global success mean Espresso isn’t Italian even though it’s invention is documented & it’s culture remains strong in Italy. Is Yoga not Indian? Is Day of the Dead not Mexican? It seems to me a trope that modern food writers insist on treating Italians differently, can you imagine writing this same article about Chinese food? 1/2
It's interesting how some cultural differences are so difficult to understand for Americans.
Even now is extremely rare to be served pizza in a "first class hotel" in Italy. Not even in Naples.
Is simply something that in Italian culture is not considered appropriate for that specific setting.
But this gives no indication about the spread or popularity of pizza in Italy.
Pizza in Italy is to this day seen as something specifically Neapolitan, even if there are thousands of pizzerie around the country (as well as thousands of Sicilian, Sardinian, Abruzzese, Pugliese, Venetian, Ligurian restaurants).
First pizzerie outside of Naples opened the same way they opened in NY, Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo. With immigrants from Naples moving to other cities.
It's also quite bizarre that the author mentions the "pizza effect" and its inventor Agehananda Bharati since Bharati contradicts the article, claiming that pizzerie spread in Italy in the 20s and 30s (as it actually happened), not in the 50s or 60s
The Shakey’s in Dallas, at least, in the early 60s had the kitchen in the middle and on the larger side served beer, but us kids had to go to the smaller side which was dry. Liquor and evidently beer rules were strange in those days in Texas.
Later living in Houston, in the mid 70s, I would pick up Shakeys to go and take to my GF’s apartment. The carry out box hadn’t been perfected, and was only corrugated cardboard flat sheets held together on the sides with a primitive and ineffective tab system. Driving home in my new Triumph TR7, I placed the pizza on the console and attempted to hold it down with my right elbow. Taking a S curve, without slowing down, the pie slid out of the box and landed on the passenger seat, the still bubbling cheese going further afield than the crust. The dairy product fused itself to the fabric. Never was sure if was petrified cheese on the seat, or melted synthetic fabric, but the scar was never removed.
When I was a teenager, back in the 70s, my parents would take us to Shakey's a lot. It was a treat because, unlike hamburgers and hot dogs, you really couldn't make decent pizza at home back then. I don't recall much about the pizza but we were all addicted to those Mojo potatoes. The thing about kid's pizza is that parents usually kept it simple. They would usually order a pizza with pepperoni. (or a pizza where the other half was just cheese if someone didn't like pepperoni.) Then in college I was exposed to the Chicago style with tons of toppings. Usually now, the only time I have pizza is when they throw a pizza night at work where the bosses buy a bunch of cheap pizzas for us with a selection of pizzas with various toppings. (And get criticized at by the vegans for not having any decent vegan options.)
Thanks for the great article. Shakey's in Palm Springs, California was my formative pizza experience. I loved it. Big long tables with benches filled with baseball and softball teams celebrating their wins (or nursing their wounds over losses), families, music, a big window where you could watch the pizza makers at work, very large red plastic glasses filled with crushed ice and coke or your other favorite soft drink. This was around 1961 or so. They served wine from taps labeled "Burgundy" and "Chablis". In my memory the pizza was very good. Crispy crackerlike crust (delicious), good sauce and plenty of cheese. I'm not sure what I would make of it today but I remember it very fondly.
Thanks for such a well detailed article. My friend Norma Knepp and I have done extensive research on the Mastro's including hours of interviews with Frank's daughter Madeline and an article published in PMQ. Maybe we can connect more dots on their story together someday. Walter, owner of Smiling with Hope Pizza, Reno, NV. https://www.pmq.com/the-pizza-kings-the-strange-sad-story-of-the-industrys-greatest-and-most-tragic-visionaries
I was ten or eleven when I had my first pizza and it came out of a Chef-Boy-Ardee box bought by my father, a WWII vet, who wanted us to taste pizza. We kids loved it, not knowing any better. My second adult job was at a Shakey's Pizza Parlor which featured a player piano and Friday banjo nights. That's where I learned to make my own pizzas from scratch (except for the dough, and even Shakey's bought that readymade). I was sad that Shakey's disappeared, but we recently discovered one still operating in Boise, Idaho. They told us there are several Shakey's in Mexico because it's now a Mexican-owned company.
Banjos? For our family, the draw was always the Cap'ns Galley Pizza & Pipes-- just called Pizza and Pipes-- because the Old Man was an huge George Wright fan, lamenting the day they tore down the San Francisco Fox Theater. Going to Pizza and Pipes as a kid was mesmerizing, what with the thunder of the huge pipe organ, the
distinct sourdough-like tangy pizza crust, and a sneaky sip of Pop's beer. Back then, no one blinked at couple teaching their kids about moderate libation in public.
*sigh*
Meh. It's true that pizza largely remained a local Neapolitan dish in Italy until well after WW II. But in Napoli, Pizzeria Brandi goes back to 1780 and claims to have produced the first Margherita in 1890. https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/naples/2021/brandi-pizzeria/
It may interest you that Shakey's is still alive and well as the biggest pizza chain in the Philippines!
there is still a shakey's in kyoto: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298564-d3649235-Reviews-Shakey_s_Shinkyogoku-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki.html
I'll agree that food was highly regional in Italy and pizza was not common beyond Naples until relatively recently, but it spread throughout Italy the same way other foods did, through internal migration of Italians. The idea that, '... it happened mostly because American tourists to Italy were desperately trying to find the “real thing”', is risible. Thousands of southern Italians moved to the industrial north after WWII (some before that). They brought their foods with them.
I am an American living in Turin, the fourth largest city and the first capital of the united Italy. At least 2/3 of the inhabitants have roots in the south of Italy. When I enter a local restaurant, unless it is specifically Piemontese, it will have a range of dishes from throughout Italy... most of them completely unknown to Americans.
The real truth is that pizza is a modern creation the most popular by product of the Columbian Exchange, tomatoes from Mexico meet bread from the old world, but it’s origin place, it’s birth is Naples, which yes at the time was not part of the modern Italian republic but the peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean on which it lies has been called Italia for millennia. Stop treating Italians differently than you would any other culture, you ruined a perfectly good article about pizza history with your unnecessarily inflammatory erasure of Italian culture. Go to naples & wear a signboard saying “ la pizza non è italiana” and “report” back to me. 2/2
A good article, well researched, interesting history that’s not necessarily new to those in the pizza industry, but just one issue. Why the clickbait title? Why the provocation of Italian’s & Italian diaspora? Pizza was a regional food, found almost exclusively in Naples, ok yes those of who understand our history already knew that. The diaspora spread it NYC, new haven, trenton, Buenos Aires, & São Paulo, ok yes we are aware & some us have visited all those various locations. Then comes the post war commodification & industrialization of the pizza industry by mostly non-Italian Americans, sure, again we are aware of this. But as an Italian-American I’m confused why you feel the need to erase the first two parts of the story. Quantity does not equal origin story. Pizza is Italian. You yourself clearly spell out it’s origins. Why the provocative erasure of our culture? Does starbucks global success mean Espresso isn’t Italian even though it’s invention is documented & it’s culture remains strong in Italy. Is Yoga not Indian? Is Day of the Dead not Mexican? It seems to me a trope that modern food writers insist on treating Italians differently, can you imagine writing this same article about Chinese food? 1/2
It's interesting how some cultural differences are so difficult to understand for Americans.
Even now is extremely rare to be served pizza in a "first class hotel" in Italy. Not even in Naples.
Is simply something that in Italian culture is not considered appropriate for that specific setting.
But this gives no indication about the spread or popularity of pizza in Italy.
Pizza in Italy is to this day seen as something specifically Neapolitan, even if there are thousands of pizzerie around the country (as well as thousands of Sicilian, Sardinian, Abruzzese, Pugliese, Venetian, Ligurian restaurants).
First pizzerie outside of Naples opened the same way they opened in NY, Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo. With immigrants from Naples moving to other cities.
It's also quite bizarre that the author mentions the "pizza effect" and its inventor Agehananda Bharati since Bharati contradicts the article, claiming that pizzerie spread in Italy in the 20s and 30s (as it actually happened), not in the 50s or 60s
👏👏👏