Rosario’s Pizza Departs Decades-Old Home on Orchard Street
The pandemic takes another…
Rosario’s Pizza, the iconic pizzeria that’s served the Lower East Side for nearly six decades, permanently closed its longtime restaurant earlier this month. It had been at the northwest corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets since 1998.
Fans, fret not (too much, at least). Apparently, owner Sal Bartolomeo is “actively looking for a new location,” at least according to a business update posted to Google reviews.
In its place at 173 Orchard will be more of the same – another pizzeria, albeit newfangled. Something called Zazzy’s Pizza will take over the ovens, and dish “plant-based pizzas” alongside the classic fare. Ownership tells us the new pizza parlor will open at the end of August.
As for Rosario’s Pizza, many argue the quality hadn’t been what it once was. Nevertheless, it’s an area icon.
Bartolomeo started making pizza in the family business at age 16. He had recently been fired from a tailor shop gig for not speaking good enough English. So, his uncle Rosario brought him aboard when the pizza joint opened next to Katz’s on East Houston in 1963. It moved thirty-five years later to the current location at the corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets thanks to escalating rents
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