Trenton Tomato Pies (DeLorenzo's)

Trenton Tomato Pies (DeLorenzo's)
Trenton tomato pies are the stuff of legends
Times, The (Trenton, NJ) - Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Author: SUSAN YESKE, Food Editor


A De Lorenzo's tomato pie is constructed with cheese first
and tomatoes last. Tyler Marie Valenza, 4, is the latest
generation to enjoy tomato pie. Here she eats her with dad
Lou. The family is from Hamilton but comes back to the
'Burg for tomato pies. At right, a small neon sign in the
window at De Lorenzo's advertises pizza, but the main sign
for the Hudson Street store advertises tomato pies.
Gary Amico and Anthony Angeloni work with fresh ingredients
as they make tomato pies at De Lorenzo's. Sam Amico, the
third generation to make pies at the Hudson Street De
Lorenzo's, moves quickly as he slices pie.
Gary Amico manages the store for the family. He has
worked there for more than 30 years.
Marian and Manny Rose traveled from Montclair to try
De Lorenzo's tomato pies after reading a
recommendation in Zagat's. Trenton tomato pies are
the stuff of legends. Tomatoes, no sauce.
There are pizzas, and then there are Trenton-style
tomato pies, the stuff of Chambersburg legends.
Red or white, thin crust or thick, pizza can be
found in nearly every suburban shopping center and
mall in the country. But that regional favorite,
the tomato pie, is another story. While some say
they see no difference, the experts heartily
disagree. True fans say nothing will do but a
tomato pie made in the style perfected generations
ago in Trenton. ''With a tomato pie, the emphasis
is on the tomatoes,'' said Gary Amico, manager and
co-owner of De Lorenzo's on Hudson Street in
Trenton. ''With pizza, the sauce goes on first,
then toppings and olive oil and cheese. With a
tomato pie, the cheese goes on first, then the
toppings, and the tomatoes go on last,'' said Amico,
who began making them 34 years ago when his
father-in-law made him ''an offer I couldn't
refuse.'' Whole canned plum tomatoes are crushed
and seasoned before going on the pie, creating
texture and flavor different from pizza sauce.
Each bite of a De Lorenzo Trenton-style pie brings
a taste of California tomatoes although when the
restaurant opened in 1947, Sophie De Lorenzo canned
New Jersey tomatoes at home for her husband Alexander
(Chick) to put on his pies. That's one of the few
changes in the original Chambersburg pie that still
commands sufficient loyalty for the family to take
the phone off the hook at 4:30 each afternoon to
limit the number of phone orders. After that time,
the only choice is to show up in person, which
diehard De Lorenzo's fans do in droves. They make
their way to Chambersburg to queue up outside the
tiny restaurant to wait in rain, snow and heat for
their pies. ''Back when it first opened, we used to
get the pie wrapped in newspaper, rolled up at the
top, and carry it home that way,'' said Morris S.
Rubino of Hamilton, a customer since the Hudson
Street shop opened. Rubino said back then he paid 25
cents for a small pie, 35 cents for a large. The
only flavors were plain or sausage. The years have
brought boxes, higher prices and additional choices
to De Lorenzo's and other area restaurants that sell
tomato pies. That includes DeLorenzo's Pizza in Hamilton,
founded in the 1950s by two of Chick De Lorenzo's
brothers, where lines also get so long that customers
wait outside for the chance to buy pies. Today, they
and a half-dozen other Trenton area restaurants make
white pies with clams and tomato pies with a variety of
vegetable and meat toppings. But all are made
following the rules established long ago. While the
tomato pie has legions of loyal fans here and
De Lorenzo's annually takes top honors in the Zagat
restaurant survey, the pie doesn't necessarily
translate well in other parts of the country.
''I moved to Colorado 18 years ago and tried to make
tomato pies, but they wanted nothing to do with them,''
said Anna Scozzari, one of the owners of Enzo's La
Piccola Cucina Restaurant in Lawrence. ''It's really
something just in this area,'' she said, referring to
the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania corridor which
has seen large numbers of Italian immigrants who
introduced tomato pies to America.