Paul Castelucci memorial card
A few of you’ve got seen my video presentation (or witnessed it dwell eventually yr’s Pizza Expo and likewise on the Atlantic Metropolis Pizza and Pasta Present East, through which I inform the story of Mama’s Pizzeria and Cheese Steaks, my childhood go-to place for the most effective pizza and cheese steaks in Philadelphia. For individuals who haven’t heard my discuss, here’s a hyperlink to the unique model, delivered in Charlotte on the June, 2018 Inventive Mornings gathering: https://creativemornings.com/talks/peter-reinhart
Within the presentation I recount the affect of Mama’s, the place pizzaiolo Paul Castelucci launched me and my household to what turned, for a few years, my benchmark gold commonplace for pizza. His spouse, Merry, later joined him to go up the cheese steak and hoagie station the place, once more, I fell equally in love with Mama’s cheese steaks and, even to today, have by no means had a greater one. Now, as all of you understand, such fond meals recollections are loaded with emotional baggage and territorial chauvinism — all of us almost definitely have such childhood benchmark locations and there’s no proper or incorrect in relation to arguing for his or her supremacy. However it wasn’t till a few years after I left Philly and commenced writing about bread and pizza that I noticed how profoundly Mama’s had imprinted itself upon me. I’ll say no extra right here — watch the video should you’d like to listen to the remainder of the story, or come to Las Vegas on March thirtieth the place I’ll inform it once more at Pizza Expo 2020.
The rationale I’m penning this put up is to share the information I lately acquired from Paul’s daughter Mary, that on Jan. twelfth Paul handed away on the age of 92, after 68 years of marriage to Merry. Their son, Paul Jr., nonetheless runs Mama’s, on Belmont Ave. in Bala Cynwyd, PA (only a few miles exterior of Phila.) and I urge you to go, should you can, and check out one in every of his cheese steaks. He realized effectively from his personal mama and makes, in my estimation (and I’m not alone on this matter), the most effective cheese steak on the earth.
Listed below are three pictures that bookend the Mama’s interval of my life: Paul on the counter again in 1958 or ’59, Merry on the hoagie station a couple of years later, and Paul and Merry extra lately. These pictures remind me of the picture from circa 1966, on the wall of Dominic DeMarco’s DiFara Pizzeria in Brooklyn, of a younger, good-looking, darkish haired pizza maker, hanging simply above the present dwelling Dom, 55 years later, standing in the identical spot as within the picture, nonetheless making pizzas his means.
I by no means thought an excessive amount of of pizza as a time capsule container however, hey, what higher solution to monitor the inevitable passage of time, stuffed with fond meals recollections and many taste and savor. Relaxation in peace, Paul, and thanks once more for the recollections….
Paul in 1958 or ’59
Merry making hoagies.
Paul and Merry again in 2016.
Paul Castelucci memorial card
A few of you’ve got seen my video presentation (or witnessed it dwell eventually yr’s Pizza Expo and likewise on the Atlantic Metropolis Pizza and Pasta Present East, through which I inform the story of Mama’s Pizzeria and Cheese Steaks, my childhood go-to place for the most effective pizza and cheese steaks in Philadelphia. For individuals who haven’t heard my discuss, here’s a hyperlink to the unique model, delivered in Charlotte on the June, 2018 Inventive Mornings gathering: https://creativemornings.com/talks/peter-reinhart
Within the presentation I recount the affect of Mama’s, the place pizzaiolo Paul Castelucci launched me and my household to what turned, for a few years, my benchmark gold commonplace for pizza. His spouse, Merry, later joined him to go up the cheese steak and hoagie station the place, once more, I fell equally in love with Mama’s cheese steaks and, even to today, have by no means had a greater one. Now, as all of you understand, such fond meals recollections are loaded with emotional baggage and territorial chauvinism — all of us almost definitely have such childhood benchmark locations and there’s no proper or incorrect in relation to arguing for his or her supremacy. However it wasn’t till a few years after I left Philly and commenced writing about bread and pizza that I noticed how profoundly Mama’s had imprinted itself upon me. I’ll say no extra right here — watch the video should you’d like to listen to the remainder of the story, or come to Las Vegas on March thirtieth the place I’ll inform it once more at Pizza Expo 2020.
The rationale I’m penning this put up is to share the information I lately acquired from Paul’s daughter Mary, that on Jan. twelfth Paul handed away on the age of 92, after 68 years of marriage to Merry. Their son, Paul Jr., nonetheless runs Mama’s, on Belmont Ave. in Bala Cynwyd, PA (only a few miles exterior of Phila.) and I urge you to go, should you can, and check out one in every of his cheese steaks. He realized effectively from his personal mama and makes, in my estimation (and I’m not alone on this matter), the most effective cheese steak on the earth.
Listed below are three pictures that bookend the Mama’s interval of my life: Paul on the counter again in 1958 or ’59, Merry on the hoagie station a couple of years later, and Paul and Merry extra lately. These pictures remind me of the picture from circa 1966, on the wall of Dominic DeMarco’s DiFara Pizzeria in Brooklyn, of a younger, good-looking, darkish haired pizza maker, hanging simply above the present dwelling Dom, 55 years later, standing in the identical spot as within the picture, nonetheless making pizzas his means.
I by no means thought an excessive amount of of pizza as a time capsule container however, hey, what higher solution to monitor the inevitable passage of time, stuffed with fond meals recollections and many taste and savor. Relaxation in peace, Paul, and thanks once more for the recollections….
Paul in 1958 or ’59
Merry making hoagies.
Paul and Merry again in 2016.
