The former owner of a legendary, now-defunct Staten Island pizzeria died on April 12 just a month before his 101st birthday.
Albert Bruno, a World War II vet who escaped a German POW camp after nine months in captivity, took over Nunzio’s in 1960 along with his father-in-law, Jimmy Coppolla, and brother-in-law, Vincent Coppolla. They later sold it to Robert Whiteaker, Jimmy’s grandson, who continued running the family business until the pandemic shut it down for good in 2022.
As Staten Island Live reports, Bruno served in WWII as a U.S. Army scout and was captured by Nazi troops in Saint LĂ´, France, in 1944. He and a fellow soldier broke loose from the prison the next year, shortly before the war ended.
Born in Manhattan on May 12, 1924, Albert Bruno was the son of John Bruno, who owned a beauty salon, and Constantina, who ran the family’s household. He met his wife-to-be in high school, and they married in 1946 after he’d returned to the U.S. from the war. He became a waiter at a high-end New York City restaurant, where he served famous personalities like Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle, before taking co-ownership of Nunzio’s Pizzeria from its founder, Nunzio Trivoluzzo.
“He loved it. He loved making pizza,” his son, John Bruno, told SI Live. “But it was tough for him because he would work at least six days a week, 15 hours a day.” All that hard work eventually took its toll, and the pizzeria was passed on to other family members. Bruno then took a job as a cook at Port Richmond High School. “He cooked different things for the students and teachers,” John Bruno said. “He made chicken parm and pastas. He enjoyed doing that. And they really enjoyed the food because he was a very good chef.”
A devoted family man and New York Yankees fan, Bruno coached and managed Little League baseball teams, winning two championships. “Everybody loved him. The kids thought he was a great guy,” John Bruno said. “The parents thought he was great. He went out of his way to help any kid that was there.”
In 2004, Bruno moved to Orlando with his wife, Jennie, who passed away in 2009.
He is survived by his four children—John, Vincent, Albert, Jr., and Teresa Bruno—as well as 14 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
“He was a loving father who was proud of his family,” John Bruno told SI Live. “I would say he was happy-go-lucky 90% of the time. You very rarely saw him looking blue.”
Nunzio’s Pizzeria closed in August 2022 after 80 years in business, another fatality of the pandemic. “After COVID, it was never the same,” Whiteaker said at the time. “COVID ruined this business, and for two-and-a-half years it’s been nothing but a struggle. No help.”
