Our History

J&V Pizzeria was founded by Johnny Mortillaro and Vincent DeGrezia in 1950. Just two Italian guys who loved cooking and truly enjoyed food. Johnny from Sicily and Vinny from Naples felt they would make a great team by combining their secret Italian recipes to come up with the best pizza in Bensonhurst and offer this to all their neighborhood.

This of course would be a difficult task, especially with their fellow Italians as critics. Bensonhurst, one of the oldest and largest Italian neighborhoods in Brooklyn, was where you could reunite with old friends, find specialty Italian foods and not feel homesick. They immediately became successful and the neighborhood loved the pizza. J&V is now in its 60th year of operation, and has been family owned and operated from the beginning.

Selling pizza by the slice through a window onto the street

Johnny and Vinny were also responsible for introducing the idea of selling pizza by the slice, which made it easier to afford without having to buy the whole pie. They began selling slices through an open window in front of the pizzeria at 15 cents per slice and 5 cents for soda.

Johnny and Vinny also began offering free delivery anywhere in the neighborhood making it convenient for all their customers. The concept was brilliant—good food plus convenience.

The J&V philosophy: Use all top quality ingredients like the best quality mozzarella, tomatoes, cheese, olive oil and a special dough that to this day is the family recipe, and you will always have happy customers coming back for more!

Johnny and VinnyThe crewJ & V Pizzeria in the 1980sJ and V Pizza in the 1960s