The new awnings at the 51-year-old Arturo's pizzeria look pretty sharp. But there's something to be said for the character of the older specimens (below). At least they kept true to the color scheme. And they didn't touch the hand-painted lettering in the windows.
I meant to mention this some weeks ago. New York lost an original pizza man in February. Arturo Giunta, who lent his name and pies to the Houston Street standby Arturo's for half a century, died at the age of 79 last month.
Arturo's has been on the same corner of Houston and Thompson since 1957—an eon in Manhattan real estate years. It's never had the same cachet with the trend-suckers and culture vultures as John's, Lombardi's or other classic pie purveyors. The New York Times never wrote soppy nostalgia pieces about it (not that I'm against those pieces; I'd write them if they'd let me). But it does good work quietly and steadily, and its beautiful old awnings and stenciled windows seem never to have been touched.
No word in the New York Post article announcing the death as to whether his surviving wife, daughter and son will continue the business. But if they don't, I'm coming after them with a pizza cutter.
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