Two awnings sit a few doors apart at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The one at 1 Front Street says Grimaldi's. The one at 19 Old Fulton Street says Juliana's, coal fired. Patsy Grimaldi founded the shop at 19 Old Fulton Street in 1990 and reopened it as Juliana's in 2012. The Grimaldi's name, which he sold in 1998, now bakes next door. Neither awning carries the name he started with.
A coal oven in Italian Harlem
Pasquale Lancieri opened a bakery on First Avenue in East Harlem in 1925 and turned it into Patsy's Pizzeria in 1933, baking whole pies in a coal-fired brick oven at 2287 First Avenue. His nephew, also named Pasquale and also called Patsy, went to work there after his own father died when he was 12. Patsy Grimaldi started as a busboy, moved up to apprentice at the coal oven and finished as a waiter, learning the thin, charred NY-Style pie from his uncle.
Patsy's Pizzeria
€€€€ · 4,993 reviews
Coal oven New York pizza, delicious dough, and friendly staff, but it's cash only.
1990: Patsy's, again, under the bridge
Decades later, Patsy Grimaldi spotted an empty hardware store at 19 Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn, under the bridge approach. He opened there in 1990 and named it Patsy's Pizzeria, after the place that trained him. It sold whole pies only, no slices, and it became known for lines around the block.
The name did not last. In 1991 his uncle's widow sold the Harlem shop to longtime employees, and the new owners went on to trademark Patsy's and open franchises in Manhattan. A naming suit followed, and in October 1996 the Brooklyn shop changed its signs, awning and menus to Patsy Grimaldi's, then simply Grimaldi's.
1998: selling the second name
In 1998 Patsy Grimaldi retired and sold the business and the Grimaldi's name to restaurateur Frank Ciolli. Under Ciolli the brand grew into a chain of more than 40 locations across the country by 2022, each built around a coal brick oven behind glass and a water system set up to mimic New York tap water for the dough.
The Brooklyn flagship stayed at 19 Old Fulton until 2011, when the landlord declined to renew the lease. It closed on November 29 and reopened the next day next door at 1 Front Street, an 1869 building that once held Brooklyn's first safe deposit bank. That is where Grimaldi's bakes today, with no slices sold at this location.
Grimaldi's
€€€€ · 14,376 reviews
Coal-fired thin crust with perfect char, fresh mozzarella, and bright tomato sauce. The Brooklyn Bridge pizza is a standout, though some found the ricotta not to their liking. Expect a long wait.
2012: the third name
With the old storefront empty, Patsy Grimaldi came back. In 2012, at 81, he reopened 19 Old Fulton Street as Juliana's, named for his mother, Maria "Juliana" Lancieri Grimaldi, the sister of the uncle who had taught him. The menu went back to his own youth: coal-oven pies with fresh mozzarella, seltzer in glass bottles and egg creams made with U-Bet chocolate syrup.
That put Grimaldi's, which Frank Ciolli's company had built since 1998, and Patsy Grimaldi's new Juliana's a short walk apart.
Juliana's
€€€€ · 10,093 reviews
Thin, blistered crust, fresh mozzarella, and flavorful guacamole. More sauce would be nice.
Which one is the original
Both, depending on what you count. Juliana's is in the building where Patsy Grimaldi opened in 1990, and he ran it himself from 2012. Grimaldi's holds the name and has been baking next door since 2011. The coal-oven method behind both goes back to the 1933 oven on First Avenue, still at the same First Avenue address in East Harlem.
Patsy Grimaldi died in February 2025, at 93. Juliana's is at 19 Old Fulton Street and Grimaldi's at 1 Front Street, about a minute's walk apart, and Patsy's is uptown at 2287 First Avenue.
