d's best, and unarguably the most authentic pizza, is Pizza Napoletana (Neapolitan Pizza) which maintains its pre-eminence through the quality of the local products such as herbs, tomatoes grown in the volcanic ash of Vesuvius, fresh mozzarella and the artistry of the pizzaioli or the pizza makers.Pizza migrated to America with the Italians in the latter half of the 19th century. By the turn of the century, Italians had begun to open their own bakeries and were selling groceries as well as pizza. Gennaro Lombardi opened the first true U. S. pizzeria in 1905 in New York City at 53 1/3 Spring Street and, then reopened at 32 Spring Street. It wasn't until after World War II, when returning GI's created a nationwide demand for the pizza they had eaten and loved in Italy, that pizza went public. A first recollection of pizza could possibly be Chef Boyardee's "homemade" pizza whose ingredients came packaged in a box with canned pizza sauce, a packet of parmesan cheese and crust flour. In the late 1950's, Pizza Hut, Shakey's and various other mass production pizza parlors appeared and further popularised pizza.ABSTRACT OF THE RESTAURANT AND FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY AND THE TOP FOUR PIZZA CHAIN RESTAURANTS SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTIONFood service organizations revealed that aggregate domestic systemwide sales grew to $123.59 billion for 1998 or 6.41% growth rate compared with a 5.33% rate of growth in 1997. Continued consolidations, faster growth in restaurant openings and widespread improvements in sales per unit were factors behind the acceleration in growth.Domestic pizza delivery sales have not grown as quickly, but have shown stable growth. From 1988 to 1997 pizza delivery sales in the U. S. grew at a compound annual rate of 6.2%. In 1990 and 1991, even when the U. S. was in a recessionary period, pizza delivery sales continued to grow at an annual compound rate of 2.5%. The Top 100 companies had aggregate revenue of $72.98 billion in th...
