DeMarco emigrated from Caserta in Italy in 1959. He opened Di Fara Pizza in 1965 with his business partner Farina. The name Di Fara comes from a combination of his and his business partner's names. DeMarco bought out Farina in 1978, but kept the name the same.
DeMarco heavily influenced Brooklyn pizza including younger pizzaiolos Mark Iacono of Lucali and Frank Pinello of Best Pizza. Iacono referred to De Marco as the "Joe DiMaggio of pizza". Others have referred to DeMarco as the godfather of pizza.
Many consider Di Fara's to be the best pizzeria in New York City.
In 2015, DeMarco received a haircut in the pizzeria on his 79th birthday from Brian Girgus, a drummer, barbershop owner, and "pizza freak" from Los Angeles.
On March 17, 2022, DeMarco died at the age of 85.
From The NY POST ... March 20, 2022
A pizza man died last week. The pizza man.
Dom DeMarco was a legend. The immigrant from the Italian province of Caserta opened Di Fara Pizza on the most nondescript stretch of Avenue J in Brooklyn back in 1965.
The shop name was an amalgamation of his last name and that of his partner, whom he bought out in the late 1970s. He never bothered changing the name: It was all about the pizza.
A lot of New York experiences come with a side of New York attitude. Your waiter at Peter Luger will be gruff. The hostess at the hot-restaurant-of-the-week will sneer. Be ready to order when it’s your turn at the Zabar’s counter or else.
But Di Fara has never been like that. It gets busy, sure, but Dom and his kids, who run the shop, always had time to exchange pleasantries with the regulars.
And patience for the tourists. I watched Dom’s daughter Maggie take a pizza order from a visitor who wanted a different topping on each slice. She laughed and wrote it down, and they made it. (Please, tourists to New York, do not do this.)
Dom was a true artist, and everyone knew it. Each pie was a masterpiece. He’d drizzle the oil over the finished pizza and carefully trim, with kitchen shears, the basil that grew on his windowsill. All the ingredients were super high quality.
Few were not dazzled.
He didn’t want to wear the little hat the health department insisted on. He did not wear gloves. He would plunge his hands into the oven to take a peek at the pie inside. Unsatisfied, he’d rotate it until the bottom of the pizza met his expectations. His fingers were gnarled from decades of doing this. Every pie was perfect.
It was not, by any means, a quick process. For a long time, Dom was the only one who touched the pizza. People imagined they could place their order and go for a walk, returning to find their pie waiting for them. Amateur mistake.
I’d go to Di Fara as a kid when I was too young to appreciate its uniqueness among the other corner-slice shops. My first time at Di Fara in adulthood, we placed our order and took a seat. Error. The crowd around the counter was marveling at the man and his work, yes, but people were also keeping up with their place in the line. Ninety minutes after our arrival, starving and miserable, we checked on our pizza only to be told it would still be a while.
We discussed amongst ourselves. Should we leave? Nothing could be good enough to endure this wait! But how could we give up now? We couldn’t. We waited and then waited some more.
Then it arrived. Piping hot, steam rising. Dom snipped the basil on top, grated the Grana Padano cheese. Every pie had his personal touch. “Give it a minute,” his daughter Maggie told us. We couldn’t. We didn’t. We burned the roof of our mouths and loved every second of it. We had never had pizza like this, not ever.
Last week Kim Kardashian made news when she offered her advice to people who want to succeed: “Get your f–king ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” Dom would be surprised to be mentioned in tandem with Kardashian (if he even knew who she was), but he shared this intense work ethic. His children would talk about forcing him to take days off. As he got older, we could hear them encouraging him to sit down.
The last time I had pizza made by Dom DeMarco was in October 2018. Just like the first pie, the last one stayed imprinted in my memory. We’d see him at the pizza shop after that, but he wasn’t making pizza anymore. He had passed on his gifts to others. The pizza at Di Fara is still incredible.
"But there will never be a Dom DeMarco again."
Join Chianti Classico at this Grand Tasting as they introduce the newest vintage as well as the new Additional Geographic Unit System.
About this Event:
***The Chianti Classico Grand Tasting on Monday February 28th is currently sold out.***
*If you are still interested in attending please email chianticlassico@colangelopr.com*
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Celebrate one of the world’s most prestigious wine denominations, Chianti Classico, at a Walk-Around Tasting with over 50 wineries and educational seminars by renowned wine cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti at The Altman Building in New York City on February 28, 2022.
In June 2021, Chianti Classico approved the project of the UGA system (Additional Geographic Units) to differentiate and highlight the differences in climate and soil type of 11 villages of the region. The introduction of the UGA system marked a milestone for Chianti Classico and will help define and better explain the unique taste profiles of its wines.
The New York event will offer a fully immersive experience to attendees who will be able to viscerally experience the unique landscapes that make Chianti Classico wines so sought after.
During the event you'll be able to taste Chianti Classico wines and speak with winery representatives, from small boutique wineries to some of this region's more established producers as well as learning about the UGA system from Wine Cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti.
Monday February 28, 2022
CHIANTI GRAND TASTING ... New York
Yes, the Grand Chianti Tasting is today. Having my morning coffee, and getting ready to head up to The Alman Building for the tasting. Well, two down and one to go, for this latest barrage of Italian WIne Tastings that started with the Brunello Tasting on Wednesday, followed by Tre Bicchieri on Friday, and now the CHiant Tasting today. Quite something. After two years of no tastings at all, due to the Pandemic, we now see a concentration of the 3 biggest Italian Wine Events of the year, all in a short 8 days time.
I'm looking forward to tasting some great CHianti and other wines made in the CHianti Zone. There will be a lot of wonderful Chinti wines to taste among the 50 participating estates, but I always have my sentimental favorites, which include Castello Verrazzano in Greve, from my good friend the Cavalier Luigi Cappellini, always some real authentic ( no Merlot, No Cab) Chianti wines, along with the estates great example of Vino Santo. Also in Greve, and along with Verrazzano as my two favorites are the wines from Villa Calinaia and my friends Conti Capponi, Sebastiano and Nicola Capponi, two brothers of the noble Florentine Family of Capponi. Villa Calcinaia is one of the most and important estates in all of Chianti Classico. The Capponi Family have been making wine in Greve for more than 500 years. Quite a pedigree.
Third on the list, and along with Villa Calcinaia, the estate of Fontodi from Giovanni Manetti in Pnazano, the next town south of Greve on Chianti Classico'S Chaintigiana Road that runs sout from Florence in the North, to Siena on the southern end. On the first day that I ever visited a wine estate in Italy, and was given a private tour and tasting by the owner of the estate, the first estate was Villa Calcinaia and The Conti Capponi, and after we took a tour of Villa Calciania and had a wonderful lunch with the two Counts, we left and made our way to Panzano and the Fontodi Wine Estate to meet up with Giovanni Manetti, who took us on a tour of the cellears and the vindeyards, before bringing us inside for a tasting of Fontodi's wonderful Chainti, Vin Santo, and Super Tuscan (Flaccinella) Wines. It was quite a day, and one I cherish to this day,
Well, Boys and Girls. It's time to go. Up to 18th Street and the Altman Builing where all the wonderful Chianti, Vin Santo, and my Tucan Friends await. I will taste the fine wines, visit and chit-chat with friends, and I will report back to you tomorrow to let you know about the wine and how the day went. So Ciao for now.
Daniele Bellino Z "Teh New York Italian Food & Wine Guy"
Basta !
Note: Orsen Wells after discovering the Negroni while writing a screenplay in Rome, wrote in a correspondence back home thathe had discovered a delightful Italian Cocktail, “The Negroni.” Welles stated, “It is made of Bitter Campari which is good for the liver, and of Gin which is bad. The two balance each other out.”
The BELLINO NEGRONI
Best Selling Italian Cookbook author Daniel Bellino Zwicke has been drinking Negroni's since he had his first in Rome, Italy, way back in the Summer of 1985. Daniel loves his Negroni, and it gets him just a bit perturbed at the cocktails over- popularity of late (the past 6 Years), as he feels it cheapens his beloved Italian Cocktail, as Daniel says, "Now everybody and their Grandmother drinks them"... When not so many people drank them, and very few ever even heard of the Negroni at all, it made drinking them, that much "more special." Now? Well you can't stop progress as they say.
The BELLINO NEGRONI
Bellino, who knows a thing or two about Negronis, says he likes his own special way, deviating slightly for what is the standard recipe of equal parts of Gin, Sweet Vermouth, and Campari on the rocks, with a fresh slice of Orange. Daniel says, he likes his Negroni with 1/3 Campari, with the other 2/3 of his Negroni made up of a bit less Gin (less than a third), and a bit more than a third of Sweet Vermouth over ice, with a splash of Club Soda, and of course an Orange slice. That's "The Bellino Negroni" Basta.
PS ... Bellino says "Tucci has the Negroni all Wrong." Shame on you Stanley. In his book, Tucci calls for half of the drink to be made with Gin, and the other half, with equal parts of Campari and Sweet Vermouth. ONG Stanley? This would make a horrible Negroni with so much Gin, overpowering the Sweet Vermouth and Campari.
Bellino says, while it is OK to tweak the Negroni just a bit, such a drastic change with half the cocktail made with Gin, would completely destroy the drink, and turn it totally "out of balance" unlike the Bellino Negroni, with just a minor change (less Gin), making for a superb cocktail.
The star grape in Italy’s northern Piedmont is nebbiolo, named for the misty fog that drifts over the hills at harvest time, when aromas of white truffles and fermenting wine fill the air. It’s the Italian equivalent to Burgundy’s pinot noir, as important to the region as cabernet is to Napa Valley.
Nebbiolo is a tricky grape, thin-skinned and difficult to vinify. To fully ripen, it requires a long growing season, which tames its famous tannins yet lets the wine age in deliciously complex ways. The haunting blend of licorice, cherry, and floral aromas along with its layers of complex flavors and elegant structure are key to the appeal of its most famous wine: Barolo, named after both a village and a part of the region.
In 2016, wine growers were anticipating a magnificent vintage before they picked a single grape. For starters, the weather was perfect throughout the growing season, says Jimmy Minutella of Renato Ratti, whose single-vineyard Barolo Rocche dell’Annuziata ($105) brims with a rose-petal bouquet and glides over the tongue like velvet.
No heat waves, frosts, or hailstorms interrupted the season. The months of July and August had low humidity and temperatures that were above average but no hotter than 95F. Occasional rains prevented heat stress. September brought cooler evening temperatures, extending the growing season.
But labeling 2016 a great vintage for Barolo is not only a reflection of the weather. Add some science: The local government’s agriculture department and faculty at the University of Turin check the quality of grapes by measuring components such as sugar levels and acidity in clusters plucked from 15 strategically chosen Barolo vineyards. “We start with data,” says Matteo Ascheri, president of the regional consortium of winemakers in Piedmont, which represents more than 500 producers.
To the analyses and their implications for the final product, the consortium added ratings from producers and critics at a Nebbiolo Prima preview event in Alba earlier this year, as well as from global sommeliers and critics like me, who tasted the wines in New York in February. Afterward, all were averaged together to come up with the final official score, which rang in at an almost-perfect 99.3 out of 100 and was announced at the first Barolo Barbaresco World Opening gala dinner. There were 200 producers on hand.
“This is one of the best vintages I’ve ever made, with 35 harvests on my shoulder,” said Luca Currado, winemaker at Vietti s.r.l., whose stunning single-vineyard Barolo Rocche di Castiglione ($200) nicely illustrates the character of the year: perfect balance, along with expansive anise, mint, and spice aromas; dark plum and cherry flavors; plush, smooth texture; and the structure to age for 30 years longer.
