In 2019 Louie & Ernie’s Pizzeria celebrated 60 years in the business at Crosby and Waterbury Avenues. Founder Ernie Ottuso was honored by having the intersection named for him several years ago, and the original blue and white honorific sign is still in place. All Bronx streets were signed with vinyl blue and white signs between 1964 and 1984.
Whenever I’m in these parts I get a slice here. In the website Serious Eats (the review has been moved and I can’t locate it), pizza reviewer Adam Kuban explains that Ottuso sold the pizzeria to brothers Cosimo and Johnny Tiso in 1987. “As Cosimo Tiso says, ‘We just make pizza. We don’t make sandwiches, we don’t make salads.’”
Louie and Ernie’s frequently makes Best Pizza in NYC lists, which admittedly are numerous and arbitrary. Very good pizza….
The pizzeria has been here in what appears to be a private home that has been converted to a pizza place for several decades. This is a tax photo from 1940 when what appears to be a grocery or deli was on the ground floor. If anyone else knows about a pizzeria that is on the ground floor of a private dwelling in NYC..or environs… Comments are open.
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7/12/23