Pasquale "Patsy" D'Amore served the very first pizza pies in Los Angeles in 1939 at his first restaurant called Casa D'Amore.
Patsy also opened up the very first pizza stand in Los Angeles located at the Farmers Market and it's still there today.
In 1949 when Patsy (Pasquale) opened the pizzeria, a cut of pizza (otherwise known as a slice) was .20 cents.
By 1950 Patsy would opened the famed Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood, it would become legendary, Hollywood celebrity hot spot. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Lauren Becall, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis Jr., James Dean, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe and other well- known Hollywood notables would frequently dine at the Villa Capri as it was well known that Frank Sinatra's was a co-owner.
Sinatra was often seen singing and goofing around at the piano bar with his pals, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Lauren Bacall and James Dean.
Good customer and friend Lew Bracker remembers the Villa Capri in great detail, "The Villa, as they called opened in 1950, just one year after Patsy D'Amore's tremendous success with his Pizza stall at the Original Farmers Market which is still there today"
Bracker continues...."James Dean spent a lot of time at the Villa Capri. It was his haunt, his hang out, his cocoon, his inner sanctum". It’s been said he stopped in the night before his tragic death.
The Villa Capri was a small restaurant with a bar room barely separated from the dining room, where the three walls were lined with booths and a few tables in the middle of the room. My dad actually built their first fireplace in the mid 50s when he was trying to get a record contract and Patsy would often feed him when he was broke.
"The food was very good but old Southern Italy Italian, but then, so were all the other Italian eateries. The Villa was far more than just another restaurant. It was an oasis in the Hollywood desert for Hollywood celebs, notably Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, big time song writers, actors and actresses and of course, James Dean. It was even more to Jimmy, it was his "safe house", says Bracker. "Jimmy and I always entered the Villa through a kitchen door off the parking lot. The chef, Carmine, ruled his domain like a tyrant and we were the only ones he allowed to enter that way and always gave us a big greeting, even allowing us to sample his array of appetizer goodies. The Villa was the only restaurant I was ever in that placed a 3-tiered appetizer tray on your table as you sat down.
"Yes, tourists did find their way to the Villa", says Bracker, "but cameras were not allowed nor were autograph seekers. Your booth was your castle, especially Jimmy's. When you walked into the Villa, the bar was on your left where Baron reigned supreme. Right in front of you was the only table in the bar room. It was long and sat eight. The table faced the door and was definitely separated from the tables in the main room. Dan Tana told me the waiters called it "Siberia."
"The Villa was the only restaurant I was ever in that placed a 3-tiered appetizer tray on your table as you sat down", says Lew Bracker.
Bracker continues..."It was at the Villa that important friendship were in the middle of the "Italian restaurant explosion. Jean Leon, Matty Jordan and Dan Tana were to become La Scala, Matteo's Italian Restaurant and Dan Tana's. Later, Joe Patti and La Famiglia. Also, Pepone, Guido's, and Carmine's. They can all trace their origins back to the Villa Capri. James Dean wanted to get involved with the restaurant biz too, but we all know why that didn’t happen. I will always remember, at the party for the the Restaurant's 50th Birthday party, Dan, his daughter Katerina, my daughter Lesley and I sitting in a booth, 56 years removed from our Villa Capri days. And the night at the restaurant when Dan, Katerina and my two daughters, Lesley and Alison, ate and reminisced into the evening. History eerily repeated itself again in 1974. Joe Patti, bartender at La Scala, showed me a failed, closed restaurant at 453 Canon, in Beverly Hills, a block from La Scala. This restaurant was to become La Famiglia, and like La Scala, Matteo's and Dan Tana's, a big success".
Alison Martino with Filomena D'Amore at Patsy's Pizza located at the Famers Market
Hope you enjoyed this "slice" of history!
Alison Martino is a writer, television producer and personality, and L.A. pop culture historian. She founded the Facebook page Vintage Los Angeles in 2010. In addition to CityThink and VLA, Martino muses on L.A’s. past and present on Twitter and Instagram and on her website, alisonmartino.com
Alison is also currently a columnist for Los Angeles Magazine.