PizzaMarketplace.com Top 100 Movers & Shakers, No. 49: Grimaldi's, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Patsy Grimaldi, for whom the pizzeria is named, learned the art of pizza making from his uncle, who learned it from Gennaro Lombardi, the man credited with opening the first pizzeria in America in 1905. Grimaldi went on to open his own pizzeria on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. The secret to Grimaldi's pizza is a coal-fired oven, which generates temperatures topping 1,200 degrees and cooks a pizza in minutes. The company opened its first restaurant outside of the New York area in 2003, in Phoenix, and now has 27 locations around the country. In addition to its coal-fired oven, the company maintains water consistency throughout its restaurants, going so far as to hire a chemist to analyze and re-create the mineral content of the water to ensure the dough tastes the same in Florida as it does in Brooklyn.
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