“Gloria Pizza, the fabled Flushing slice joint that shut its doors almost 20 years ago, is coming back to Queens. Thomas Zaremba, owner of the new shop, located next to the Midway Theater in Forest Hills, said he hopes it will open within the next month. ‘We heard from so many people who said, ‘We miss the pizza,’ said Zaremba. ‘So we decided to come back to Queens and do what we did in the past.'”

“Zaremba’s father-in-law, Lucio Musco, helped start Gloria Pizza on Main St. in downtown Flushing back in 1960. And Zaremba honed his own skills while working in the shop in the 1970s until it closed in 1994. ‘Everyone else is retired,’ he said. “’’m sort of the last of the Mohicans.’ Located near the busy intersection of Main St. and Roosevelt Ave., the original Gloria was a popular destination for local residents, shoppers, students and commuters rushing to the 7 train or the bus.”

During the shop’s heyday, it would be packed from the minute the doors opened until they closed, Zaremba said. While downtown Flushing has remained a bustling shopping mecca and transportation hub, the demographics have changed. Some pizzerias and fast food restaurants remain, although the majority of the shops and eateries cater to the area’s predominately Asian-American population.

After Gloria closed, Zaremba helped start restaurants in Manhattan and Long Island. But the wave of love for Gloria Pizza — evident on numerous Facebook pages and message boards — helped encourage him to come back to Queens.