Pizzeria Napoletana: Bring Your Own Wine!
189 Dante Street
Across from Dante Park, one can see the pizzeria with its name spelled out of red neon lights. Cross Dante Street, and you find yourself on the doorstep of our final destination: Pizzeria Napoletana. After all the walking and information given to you, you deserve a good meal made out of imported ingredients directly from Italy. Here, you have the choice between thirty four types of pizzas and more than thirty different pasta plates. But before we head inside for a nice warm meal, let's talk about the restaurant's historical information.
Napoletana was the first pizzeria to open its doors in Montreal in 1948. Its owners were the Girolamos, a couple from Italy that had immigrated to Canada. In its first years of business, Napoletana was more like a social club for Italians Montrealers to meet, talk, and eat. Through the years, the restaurant has kept its original pizza and pasta menu, and has added more choices too. Since its opening, the restaurant has remained a family business ran by the Girolamos.
Today, the three daughters of the owners run the business along with one of their cousins. Linda, Sabina, Cristina and Agostino have taken over the business. The inside décor has changed since the restaurant's opening, but their specialties have remained the same: pizza and pasta. The recipes have stayed the same, too. Overall, Montreal's very first pizzeria has kept a good reputation through the years and has become very popular internationally, too. Linda Girolamo said: ''We've had customers from around the world.. All the way from Russia, too! It's unbelievable'' (2011).
Now that you know a bit more about the history of Pizzeria Napoletana, you are free to go enjoy a meal inside. I hope you enjoyed this tour of Little Italy and have learned a lot about these people that struggled to survive, but have showed us that hard work pays well in the end.
Corner on which the pizzeria is.
The red neon lights shaped into the letters of the restaurant's name.
