THE FIRST U.S. PIZZERIA

NEW YORK -- Three other Sacramentans and I recently flew here to
attend a wedding. The celebration was delightful. But the night
before proved almost as memorable.

For that evening we tasted history - in the form of a pizza.

Of course, great pizza and New York are almost synonymous.
Not that New York invented pizza; that honor belongs to the southern
Italian city of Naples. But New York did introduce the now-ubiquitous
dish to the United States. And the person making the introduction was
a Neapolitan: Gennaro Lombardi, a baker who emigrated from Naples in
1895.

Lombardi started making pizza in a bakery and selling it by the slice
in the most famous Little Italy, the one on Manhattan's Lower East
Side along historic Mulberry Street. He used the same dough recipe
that his father and grandfather had used in Naples.

Because his pizza slices sold better than his breads and pastries,
Lombardi abandoned the bakery and, in 1905, opened his - and the
country's - first pizzeria.

Vestiges of the great migration that brought more than 5 million
Italians to the United States between 1880 and 1920 remain visible on
Little Italy's narrow streets today. There are grocery stores, gift
shops, espresso bars, restaurants and pizzerias, including Lombardi's.

Now owned by a new Gennaro Lombardi (grandson of the founder) and his
partner, John Brescio, America's first pizzeria still does a brisk
business.

Its location - 32 Spring St. (between Mott and Mulberry streets) - is
Lombardi's third; all three are just a few feet from one another.

You'd never know it wasn't the original, though, because Little Italy
is one of the older neighborhoods in New York, and the structure that
houses Lombardi's dates to around 1900. It looks every bit of its age.

Consisting of two long, narrow storefronts connected by a breezeway
with an upstairs "annex" (al fresco in good weather; canvas-covered
in bad), the eatery seats only 90 people. Tables have checkered
cloths. Some walls are bare brick; others are covered with glowing
newspaper and magazine reviews. The ceiling is stamped tin. Floors
are "chicken-wire" tiles. Waiters, including the extremely friendly
Yanni Provias who served us, wear white shirts and aprons in the
turn-of-the-20th-century style.

In short, once you enter, you feel like you've taken a time-machine
trip.

Lombardi's most distinctive feature, however, is its brick oven.
(Movie star Jack Nicholson, a regular patron when in New York, likes
to sit in a relatively private nook near it.) As any pizza fan knows,
brick ovens make the best pizza. But Lombardi's oven is more than
brick. It's also a "coal oven" (as the sign on the entry awning
boasts).

Coal ovens have been outlawed in New York for environmental reasons,
but Lombardi's was grandfathered in. The advantage of a coal oven is
that it heats to 900-plus degrees - some 200 to 300 degrees higher
than wood or gas ovens.

"That allows the pizza to bake much quicker," explained manager
Rosemarie Gentile. "The bottom gets a little blistered and the cheese
melts just right. It makes pizza taste much better."

Co-owner Brescio agreed, but noted that other factors contribute to
Lombardi's reputation, namely extremely fresh, top-quality
ingredients - "I throw them out if they're not just right," he said
proudly - and "the family's secret recipe for the dough."

We tried:

* The standard pizza (mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil,
pecorino Romano and olive oil).

* White pizza (mozzarella, ricotta, pecorino Romano, garlic, black
pepper - and no sauce).

* Calzone (a folded-over large pizza stuffed with mozzarella and
ricotta, herbs and any other topping you wish; marinara sauce, which
comes on the side, can be poured on top if you wish).

* And the house specialty, "fresh clam pie" (tons of shucked,
top-neck clams, oregano, garlic, parsley, pecorino Romano, olive oil
and black pepper).

The unusual clam pizza was adapted from a Lombardi family Christmas
Eve tradition, when all-seafood meals were the rule for that day in
Catholic Italy.

To say all of Lombardi's pizzas are fantastic is true - but that is
also an understatement.

What makes them so good? Start with the thin crusts - the only kind
Lombardi's makes. Slightly charred and crispy on the underside, they
have a wonderful springiness when you bite into them.

The toppings - the mozzarella and ricotta, especially - were
incredibly fresh, with a sweetness one only encounters in the finest
dairy products. If the dough is the keystone of a Lombardi pizza, the
mozzarella and ricotta are its zenith.

Lombardi's is a true Italian pizzeria. It sells only pizza, except
for a few appetizers and beverages.

And this history-cum-quality comes reasonably priced: $13.50 for an
eight-slice pizza; $11.50 for a six-slice one. The calzone, which is
enough for a small army, goes for $27. But bring cash: Lombardi's
takes no plastic.

It did not surprise us to learn that in Manhattan, where there are
many excellent pizzerias, Lombardi's was rated No. 1 in 1996 by the
consumer-written Zagat guide. In 1999, Zagat rated Lombardi's "Best
on the Planet."

Such praise gets no argument from us. We left with only one regret:
that Lombardi's doesn't deliver to California.

LOMBARDI'S, 32 Spring St., New York; (212) 941-7994. Open daily for
lunch and dinner; no reservations, no credit cards, no checks.