The Original Impellizzeri’s Pizza Story
In 1968 Benny Impellizzeri began his pizza career at a Louisville pizza restaurant called Mario’s in Hikes Point. In 1971 he went to another Louisville tradition called Fun City Pizza. Fun City was the first to offer fresh breadsticks and Sicilian style pizzas. In 1978 Benny’s father, who was a butcher, leased the old Mr A’s pizza site on Bardstown Road and moved his downtown butcher shop to the Highlands. Well Mr A’s left their pizza ovens behind, so Benny decided to go out on his own and started selling Impellizzeri’s pizzas in 1979. While Benny’s father ran his butcher shop during the day, Benny made pizzas at night. Pretty soon the pizza business was out pacing the butcher shop. So Benny’s father decided that now was as good a time as any to retire, Benny took over the whole location. Benny developed his style of pizza as a way to be different from Fun City. Benny decided to make his pizzas with 2 layers of toppings and 2 layers of cheese. Thus what is described today as “Louisville Style Pizza”, was born. Along with his pizza design and some recipes from his family, Benny made the original Bardstown store a Louisville “landmark”. Rock stars and movie stars would eat Impellizzeri’s over the years. Over the years Benny had various locations around town, but in 2005 the original Highlands location closed. For the first time since 1979, Benny wasn’t making his “Louisville style” pizzas. In early 2006 Benny began conversations with an old friend to reopen The Original Impellizzeri’s. By July of 2007 a site was found and Benny was back open in the Highlands and The Original Impellizzeri’s was back.
