The New York Times reports, “Nick Azzaro, above, says his pizzeria in Trenton, N.J., not Lombardi’s in Manhattan, is the oldest in the country. And it seems as if he’s making a fair claim.”
“As The Star-Ledger reports, a sign at Mr. Azzaro’s restaurant, Papa’s Tomato Pies in Trenton, once said it was the second-oldest pizzeria in the country. Now it claims primacy. Lombardi’s was apparently the first licensed pizzeria in the the country when it started baking pies in its brick oven in 1905. But as Lombardi’s says on its Web site, firstpizza.com, it opened in its present location at 32 Spring Street in 1994, 10 years after the original Lombardi’s closed its doors down the street.”