Domenico DeMarco, founder of iconic Di Fara Pizzeria, dies at 85
March 17, 2022, 2:01 p.m.
Domenico "Dom" DeMarco, who founded the Brooklyn pizza joint has died. Both Chef Anthony Bourdain and former Mayor Bill de Blasio declared his the best slice in the city.
Domenico "Dom" DeMarco, who founded the iconic Brooklyn pizza joint Di Fara Pizzeria, has died. He was 85.
His daughter, Margie DeMarco Mieles, shared the news on Facebook Thursday morning.
"My world revolved around my dad," she wrote. "I worked alongside him since I was a little girl. He was the hardest working man I know and he was a leader and will remain a leader through his legacy. It is with a broken heart that I must share that he has left my mom, my brothers, my sister, myself and all those that loved him because it was his time."
The original Di Fara is a nearly 60-year-old institution in Midwood, and has fans all over the city and beyond.
Mark Iacono, the founder of Lucali's who has frequently cited DeMarco as one of his biggest pizzaiolo influences, wrote a tribute on Instagram. It reads, in part: "You single-handedly turned the pizza world upside down. You set the standard, and trails of success for so many of us... you now stand upright at your altar, wearing your flannel shirt and crisp white apron- your back no longer hunched, your hands callus free tearing off tiny white pillows of Bufala mozzarella, Italian music playing in the background while sipping Amarone, and pouring the most aromatic olive oil... I will miss you dearly. Until we meet again, make pizza peacefully my friend."
DeMarco founded Di Fara's in Midwood in 1965, a few years after emigrating from the province of Caserta in Italy to NYC. He told the New York Times in 2004, "When I got here, I spent three months in Long Island, in Huntington, working on a farm ... then somebody put a bug in my head and said there's a good spot on Avenue J. I didn't even know Avenue J existed."
He opened Di Fara with a business partner whose last name was Farina. "So when the lawyer made the paper, he put the two names together: Di Fara," he recalled to the Times. In 1978, DeMarco bought his partner out but kept the name.
For much of the last 50 years, DeMarco was directly involved in the creation of each pizza pie, importing ingredients from Italy multiple times a week. The pies were all topped with fresh basil (cut with scissors by DeMarco) and a signature drizzle of olive oil. Slices cost just 15 cents when it opened in 1965, but are now $5 a pop. Even so, the place was almost always swamped with people trying to get a taste, and visitors could expect an hour-long wait, at times.
DeMarco's attention to detail and passion for all things pizza turned Di Fara's into a pizza staple of the city, frequently turning up on best of lists from the likes of Zagat, Village Voice, the Times, Gothamist and more. Both Chef Anthony Bourdain and former Mayor Bill de Blasio declared Di Fara's the best slice in the city at various points.
Over the years, Di Fara expanded to more locations, including on the Lower East Side, a now-shuttered place in Williamsburg and even Las Vegas. The original location has also faced a few brief closures, including in 2011 because of Department Of Health violations, and in 2019, when it was seized by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance over unpaid taxes. At the time, a spokesperson for the state told Gothamist the pizzeria allegedly owed $167,506.75. De Blasio vowed to help get Di Fara's making pies again, and a few days later, it did indeed reopen, with a spokesperson for the state saying, "we've reached a mutual agreement to move forward and we're confident the business will be operating in good faith into the future."
In 2017, the New Yorker did a video profile of DeMarco in which he talked about his process and his devotion to his corner shop.
"I guess I like what I do, you know?" he said. "They want to buy me out, you know? They come around, they say, 'We give you more than what you ask.' There's no price. No price. I make pizza for so many years! I gotta do with my heart, you know. There's no price that could buy me out."
DeMarco's son Alex told Brooklyn Paper's Ben Brachfeld that his father has been on dialysis for the last couple of weeks, and the store will be closed until at least next week.
Tributes to DeMarco have been coming through on social media all day.
Adam Kuban, founder of Slice and Margot's Pizza, offered up this way to honor DeMarco: "Pour some olive oil out tonight in his honor—preferably on a pizza made with regular mozz, fresh mozz, and an obscene amount of grana padano and scissored basil."