A pizzeria is a

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

focusing on

pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

. A pizzeria may offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then takes the prepared food with them in a pizza box. A pizzeria may deliver food to the customer's home. Old Pizzeria - Napoli

In Italy, pizza was traditionally food for the poor and thus contained few and cheap ingredients. With its popularity after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, it became mostly a practical dish that was quick and easy to prepare. Pizza became more accessible when frozen pizza and pizza delivery were invented.Hultman, Henrik (2013)
Liv och arbete i pizzabranschen
,

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

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accessed on 27 December 2021.

History

Probably the oldest pizzeria in the world to still operate to this day is Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Italy. The restaurant was founded in 1738 as a catering place for merchants, and was converted into a restaurant with tables, chairs, and an upper floor in 1830.Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba
Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Accessed on 18 August 2009. One of the world's first pizzerias was founded in Naples by

Raffaele Esposito Raffaele Esposito () was an Italian chef and owner of a tavern in Naples called () in the 19th century that had been founded in 1780 by Pietro Colicchio. Esposito is often credited for creating the modern pizza. In 1889, pizza had not yet becom ...

in 1830. The restaurant, which continues to operate to this day, is nowadays named Pizzeria Brandi. The first pizza Margherita was baked in 1889 with the colours of the

flag of Italy The flag of Italy (, ), often referred to as The Tricolour (, ), is a flag featuring three equally sized vertical Pale (heraldry), pales of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side, as defined by Article 12 of the Constitution of t ...

in honour of Queen Margherita of Savoy who visited the restaurant. In the United States, sales of pizza started in 1905, when Gennaro Lombardi installed a pizza oven in his shop-café and started selling pizza by the slice.

Fast food

In the late 20th century, the concept of

fast food Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...

caused changes in pizza sales. Food stands offering '' pizza al taglio'' () started appearing in Italy, baking large rectangular pizzas sold in small slices. These slices are seldom topped with more than two ingredients, not counting tomato and cheese.

References

External links

{{Commons category
''The History Of Pizzerias''
at Bestinformationabout.com * Italian words and phrases