Patsy Grimaldi Returns: Julianna’s Pizza- Brooklyn, NY

a brick oven with a red sign above it
Back in 1998 Patsy Grimaldi sold his famous and successful pizzeria Grimaldi’s which is located under the Brooklyn Bridge.
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The Grimaldi’s brand went on to expand to various locations around the country.
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Fast forward to 2012. The owners lost the lease on the original Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn and had to leave the coal oven behind.
a restaurant at night with people sitting at tables
Patsy Grimaldi regretted selling off his beloved pizzeria and recently had an opportunity to get back into the pizza business in his original spot. From what I understand, Patsy went partners with the owners of the building at 19 Old Fulton Street while Grimaldi’s moved to the corner at 1 Front Street. Here’s the catch. Grimaldi’s could not bring the historical coal oven with them. Apparently, coal ovens are illegal to install but if they are already existing they are grandfathered in. So Patsy got his original oven back.
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The new pizzera could not be named after Patsy Grimaldi so it was named in honor of Patsy’s mother Julianna.
a wooden box with white round objects in it
The Dough
I couldn’t wait to try out Julianna’s and visited about a week or two after opening. Unfortunately Patsy Grimaldi was not there. The place was remodeled and looked nothing like the original Grimaldi’s I remembered visiting in the past.
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We were greeted by friendly employees and ordered a large, plain pie.
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While waiting for our pizza, the manager came out and offered us a sampling of a new dish they were testing out. I’m not an eggplant parmigiana fan but my sister in law really enjoyed it.
a brick oven with a fire inside
The Famous Coal Oven
a pizza on a plate
The Main Event

Once the pizza came out I couldn’t wait to dig in.
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The pizza was really amazing. To me the stand out element was the crust. I also really liked the sauce and cheese, but all I could remember after finishing was how tasty the crust was. Julianna’s can definitely hold it’s own against any of the top pizzerias in the city!

a group of men posing for a picture
L-MWTravels, C-Patsy Grimaldi, r- Lucas Miles
a sliced bread on a plate
The Calzone

I returned with Kim and Lucas a month or two later and Patsy Grimaldi himself greeted and seated us. Just to be sure I asked the waiter if it was really the famous pizza legend. Patsy was very friendly and went around the restaurant chatting with many of the customers.
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When our food came out he offered us some soup for Lucas. We graciously accepted. Patsy went on to tell us how he cooked it for hours to make it just right.
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When the soup came out, Kim and I were already working on our pizza and calzone. Patsy asked us if we would like for him to feed Lucas. We let Patsy try to feed Lucas but he wasn’t having it. It was relatively late and he wanted Mommy or Daddy not a pizza legend to feed him the soup.

The pizza was once again fantastic and the calzone was also really great. It was a very nice size and generously filled with cheese.
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Before heading home Patsy gave us some mozzarella cheese for Lucas. He enjoyed it as did Kim and I. We then did a little photo-op with Patsy by the famous coal oven. Lucas was in a much better mood and didn’t complain when Patsy held him for the picture.
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If you plan to visit Brooklyn’s DUMBO for pizza I’d highly recommend a visit to Juliana’s.
It’s much better than the previous tenant that used to occupy this space!
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Juliana’s is located at 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, ph (718) 596-6700
You can also check out their website HERE.

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