MAN MADE MEMORIES ALONG WITH PIZZAS.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
If you lived at the west end of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. back in 1955, and wanted a pizza to go, the closest place to get one was Panorama City. Which explains why Marie Ritchie chose to wait a half-hour outside Jerry Bruno's front door almost 45 years ago while the new pizza man in town got ready to open up for his first day of business. Canoga Park, way out here in the sticks where the Valley ended, was finally on the map. It was getting its own pizza joint. ``I still have the buck Marie paid for that first pizza I made here, a large cheese,'' Jerry says this week, spreading the mozzarella moz·za·rel·la n. A mild white Italian cheese that has a rubbery texture and is often eaten melted, as on pizza. [Italian, diminutive of mozza, a cut, mozzarella, from mozzare, cheese and pizza sauce on one of the last of the tens of thousands of pizza's he's made these past 45 years looking out the front window of Bruno's Pizza onto Sherman Way at DeSoto Avenue. It's finally time to hang them up, the 74-year-old pizza man says. Time to spend more hours with his grandchildren GRANDCHILDREN, domestic relations. The children of one's children. Sometimes these may claim bequests given in a will to children, though in general they can make no such claim. 6 Co. 16. than his pizzas. Jerry and his son, Phil, have sold Bruno's, and are breaking in the new owners. The pizzas may still be good, but it won't be the same, say their longtime long·time adj. Having existed or persisted for a long time: a longtime friend; a longtime resident of Detroit. longtime Adjective customers. Can't be, not without a Bruno behind the counter flipping the dough up in the air, and occasionally missing on purpose just to see the kids laugh. It's the end of an era at a time when there seems to be a pizza parlor on just about every block in the Valley, but very few old-timers like Jerry left anymore who can flip that pizza pie dough up in the air, spin it around like a saucer, and catch it behind their back. You didn't just get a pizza with these guys. You got a show. If you were a pizza lover, it was big news back in 1955 when Jerry Bruno decided to leave Mazzarino's Italian Restaurant at Coldwater and Ventura boulevards Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. after six years, and start his own pizza business out in this cow pasture pasture, land used for grazing livestock. Land unsuited for cultivation, e.g., hilly or stony land, may be used as pasture. Tilled land and meadow may be pastured after the crops are removed. with dirt streets at the far end of the Valley called Canoga Park. What, was he crazy, his customers at Mazzarino's wanted to know? Yeah, crazy like a fox. Jerry saw the migration of families west, and had read about this new aerospace plant called Rocketdyne opening up that would employ thousands of workers. Hey, Jerry figured, some of those people had to like pizza. ``Marie was so excited bringing home that first pizza when he opened,'' Tom Ritchie remembers, laughing. ``We finally had our own pizza place and didn't have to drive across the Valley to get one. ``Bruno's was the first out here, and stayed the best,'' Tom said. ``It's been like family. We watched each others kids grow up, and the Valley grow up around us.'' Lee and Bonnie bon·ny also bon·nie adj. bon·ni·er, bon·ni·est Scots 1. Physically attractive or appealing; pretty. 2. Excellent. Miller used to drive all the way from their home in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. to Canoga Park for a Bruno's pizza. ``My wife was a pizza lover, and she fell in love with Jerry's pizzas when he was making them over at Mazzarinos, so we followed him to Canoga Park,'' Miller said. ``We'd sit out in our car eating the pizza because Bruno's was strictly to go back then,'' he laughed. ``That's how much we loved his pizzas. We ate them in the front seat.'' It's stories like these, and all the friendships Jerry and his wife, Josephine, cemented with customers over the decades that makes it hard for him to finally say goodbye to the business, he says. Like any longtime, family-owned business, this store isn't just filled with tables and chairs, pots and pans, ovens and stoves. It's filled with your life and memories. His kids grew up doing their homework on those tables, under the watchful watch·ful adj. 1. Closely observant or alert; vigilant: kept a watchful eye on the clock. See Synonyms at aware, careful. 2. Archaic Not sleeping; awake. eye of their mother making the meatballs and sausage sausage, food consisting of finely chopped meat mixed with seasonings and, often, other ingredients, all encased in a thin membrane. Although sausages were made by the ancient Greeks and Romans, they were usually plain and unspiced; in the Middle Ages people began to for the day. ``Josephine would open with me everyday, then go pick the kids up from school and bring them back here,'' Jerry says. ``Around 8 p.m., she'd take them home, and if we were really busy come back and help me until we closed at 1 a.m. ``I can still see her standing at that stove stove, device used for heating or for cooking food. The stove was long regarded as a cooking device supplementary to the fireplace, near which it stood; its stovepipe led into the fireplace chimney. It was not until about the middle of the 19th cent. mixing the sauce with a spoon, watching the boys. If they started fooling around, she'd throw the spoon at them,'' he laughed. These past few weeks have been the toughest on his dad, says Phil, who's been running the day-to-day operation for the past seven years. Watching his dad tell loyal, longtime customers that the place was changing hands. That there wouldn't be a Bruno making the pizzas anymore. It's when they become sad, and a few of them start crying, Jerry says, that you realize the impact you've had on people's lives over the years. How you celebrated births in the family with them and cried at deaths. How you knew all their kids' names, and now their kids' kids. How you don't even have to ask what they want to eat when they come in because they haven't changed their order in 40 years. How it was more than pizza you gave these families - your customers - on this same street corner for the last 45 years. It was a show. A grand show. And it's going to be missed. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Jerry Bruno, owner of Bruno's Pizza in Canoga Park and pizza pioneer, will be tossing his last and retiring after 45 years of being a restaurateur res·tau·ra·teur also res·tau·ran·teur n. The manager or owner of a restaurant. [French, from restaurer, to restore; see restaurant. . Gus Ruelas/Daily News |
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