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New Eats: Patsy Grimaldi's

Can a legendary name in pizza cut it in Shanghai? Is it the "real" Grimaldi's? Is there even such a thing anymore? Deep ontological questions and pizza inside.
Last updated: 2015-11-09


In Brooklyn, the name "Grimaldi's" is uttered with fawning reverence. The Brooklyn-based pizzeria is the kind of place where people queue up an hour before it opens just to secure a pie.

The history of this institution, however, is a confusing tale of litigation and back-biting. Here is the abridged version:

A man named Pasquale "Patsy" Lancieri worked at Lombardi's Grocery. This was ground zero for pizza in New York, the first licensed pizzeria and thus the first ever documented pizza served in the city. Here Lancieri learned the tricks of the trade before blazing his own trail in 1933 and opening Patsy's Pizzeria in East Harlem. Lancieri gave his nephew, Patsy Grimaldi a job in 1941. He in turn learned the art of pizza making.

By 1990 Grimaldi opened his own place, also called Patsy's, at its famed location under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Then in 1991, Carmela Lancieri (that's Patsy Lancieri's wife and Patsy Grimaldi's aunt) sold Patsy's Pizzeria in East Harlem. She sold the naming and branding rights as well. The new owners of the Patsy's Pizzeria brand franchised four other restaurants in New York. Then they sued Patsy Grimaldi for having a pizzeria named Patsy's. So he changed it to Patsy Grimaldi's.



The Italian alphabet soup gets even thicker. In 1998 Grimaldi sold Patsy Grimaldi's to another guy named Frank Ciolli. After several disputes with the landlords that culminated in an ugly lawsuit, Ciolli was eventually booted out in 2011. Then, the landlords offered the Grimaldi's back to Grimaldi himself. Only now it's not called Grimaldi's it's called Juliana's, a tribute to Patsy's mother.

It's a lot to unpack, I know. And if you want a fuller version of the story, this article lays it all out clearly.

So why did I walk you through this convoluted story? Well, apparently the thorny litigation that seems to follow the Grimaldi's name everywhere it goes has made it all the way to China, too.

Just yesterday, the New York Daily News reported that a certain JMC Restaurant Holdings, the current owner of the Grimaldi's brand in the US, has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the "owners of a 'counterfeit' pizzeria in Shanghai." I contacted Patsy Grimaldi's management here in Shanghai, they were unaware of any suit.

For what it's worth, though, here is a record of the filing.



Of course, it's a pending lawsuit, so I'm reluctant to cast any stones just yet. But even if this place is a so-called "counterfeit," that's hardly news in Shanghai anymore. Just last week an unaffiliated clone of Hong Kong's Cha Cha Wan sprouted up on Changle Lu. A couple of years ago California's In-N-Out Burger was embroiled in a lawsuit against Caliburger. In China they'll make a knock-off anything. Yeah, Yeah... It's a pretty played-out story.

Regardless, Patsy Grimaldi's certainly deserves to be looked at on its own merits.

I'm not from New York. I've got no frame of reference on the Grimaldi's experience, but the Shanghai incarnation feels, well, like Shanghai. It's all shiny and tidy with buffed concrete floors, faux brick, New York motifs on the walls, and fashionable steel chairs. They even riff of the cosa nostra stereotype with a blue neon sign that says, "I'll make you a pizza you can't refuse." But to be fair, it's hard to make something new feel weathered and lived in. And even if Grimaldi's could, I'm not sure how well your average Shanghairen would respond to it, anyway. Know your market.



Grimaldi's trademark is the coal-fired brick oven. They've got one of those. Here it is.



And they've brought in a pizzaiolo from New York to at least get the ball rolling. Not sure if he's here for the long haul or not.



What comes out of the oven looks like this.



Like the restaurant itself, it almost looks too tidy and idealized, as if someone is taking a ruler to that ring of crust around the edge and making sure it's to spec.

This is American-style pizza, which means a crust that's thicker than Romana but crispier than Napoletana. If you're American, you'll probably like it. If you're from Italy, I'm not so sure. I'm American. I have an appreciation for this kind of pizza. When done right, it can be a transcendental experience.

And while some may say that of Grimaldi's pizza in New York. I'm not sure I can say that of it in Shanghai. It's a good pizza. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. The crust has a nice balance of chewiness and crispness. The sauce actually has flavor. They don't over do it with the cheese.

But lets take a look at the prices:

128rmb for 12-inch (serves one)
158 for a 16-inch (serves one or two)
168 for an 18-inch (serves three to four).

If you order a white pizza, add 10 or 20rmb to each of those prices, depending on the size.

These are the base prices. They get you a pizza with sauce, cheese, and fresh basil. Throw on a few toppings, however, and the prices suddenly skyrocket. A few examples:

Pepperoni, 18rmb
Beef meatballs, 18rmb
Onion, 18rmb
Fresh garlic, 18rmb
Oven-roasted sweet red peppers, 28rmb
Extra grated cheese, 28rmb

I understand that in China, in order for your Western food to taste "Western," you're going to have to pay a premium sometimes. Olive oil, cheese, butter—a lot of this stuff is shipped in from overseas and gets slapped with a hefty import tax. Naturally, that cost is passed on to the consumer. Fine. I get it.

But since this is American pizza, I'm going to put this in American terms. Grimaldi's is asking you to pay about 3 USD for minced garlic. Garlic. They're asking you to pay about 3 USD for onions—not a whole onion (which, come to think of it would excessive as well), just slices of it. And they're asking about 4.50 USD for roasted peppers. To be fair, though, those peppers are only 4 dollars in the US, a roughly 12.5 percent price increase in China. But Garlic and onions, are only 2 dollars in the US, that's a roughly 50 percent increase in China.

Still, their pizzas are nearly 11 dollars cheaper in the US. Take a look at the menu.

But ultimately it comes down to this. I ordered a 16-inch pizza with two or three toppings and two beers. The bill came out to more than 300rmb, and I didn't even get to enjoy a view of the Pudong skyline.

I'm not sure I'm sold, but maybe that doesn't matter. I passed by on Sunday, and the place was packed with locals.

For a listing of Patsy Grimaldi's click here.

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