Ray's Pizza
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
area that are generally completely independent (a few have multiple locations) but that may have similar menus, signs and logos.
History
Ralph Cuomo opened the first Ray's Pizza, at 27 Prince Street in Little ItalyLittle Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...
, in 1959, named after his nickname "Raffie". In the 1960s he briefly owned a second Ray's Pizza, but sold it to Rosolino Mangano in 1964. Mangano kept the name and later falsely claimed that his was the first. In 1973 Mario Di Rienzo named his new pizzeria Ray's Pizza after (Now out of business), he claimed, the nickname for his family in Italy. Also that year, Joseph Bari purchased a pizzeria from Mangano and renamed it, and several others, as Ray Bari Pizza. By 1991 dozens of pizzerias in New York City had "Ray's" in their name, as well as those in other American states and Teheran, Iran.
In 1981 Gary Esposito purchased a pizzeria from Mangano. After opening several more "Original Ray's" restaurants, he partnered with Cuomo and Mangano to combine independent "Ray's" restaurants into an official franchise chain. there were at least 49 restaurants by some variant of that name in the New York City telephone directory
Telephone directory
A telephone directory is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory...
, including one named Not Ray's Pizza.