One Slice Less: The Original Ray's Pizza Closes
OCTOBER 28, 2011
As both a running joke and a New York City institution, the real “original” Ray’s Pizza ended its run this week.
The original Ray’s Pizza really does exist. Or at least it did until October 26. That’s when the unassuming pizza shop at 27 Prince Street closed its doors for the last time. Ray’s was established in 1959 By Ralph Cuomo—he thought Ray’s sounded better than Ralph’s—and his family. The low-key pizza parlor served slices and pies on a typical Little Italy street near more sought-after pizza spots like Lombardi’s. Ray’s Pizza withstood the changes the neighborhood has sustained in the past five decades, probably not due to the ancient tree limbs supporting the basement ceiling, but as a symbol of mom-and-pop businesses in classic New York neighborhoods everywhere.
When Ray’s opened in 1959, none other by that name existed in the city, so there was no need to qualify the name. In the years to follow, “Original Famous Ray’s,” “Famous Original Ray’s” and a subsquent corps of variously-combined, much-maligned Ray’s Pizza shops grew to legendary proportions.
In the end, the many changes that have overtaken the neighborhood, including five-figure commercial rents, and a property dispute among Cuomo’s heirs and relatives, signified the end of Ray’s. Manager Helen Mistretta, Ralph Cuomo’s cousin who is herself nearly 80, is looking for nearby space to open a new restaurant, but the city may have to be content to choose from among the many less original, less famous, arguably less real impostors.
Read more about Ray’s Pizza from the NY Times.
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