Joseph Patane’s La Casa Pizzaria

August 22, 2023

Omaha, like most American cities, is filled with pizza joints. Many specialize in one style or another whether it be New York, Chicago, or Detroit among others. But there’s one pizzeria in Omaha that has been around so long and is so popular that its pizza is referred to as Omaha-style. Let’s head to Leavenworth Street to explore Omaha’s oldest pizzeria, which has been serving this style of pie for more than 70 years.

La Casa in its second year when it still resembled the small cottage despite the storefront. Photo courtesy of La Casa.

Joseph Patane was born in Sicily in 1895 and worked as an apprentice carpenter before arriving stateside in 1914. Not long after arriving in America, he would marry Nellie Privitera, whom he had known before emigrating. He worked for Union Pacific for a while but eventually opened his own carpentry business in Little Italy.

Interior of La Casa in its second year. Photo courtesy of La Casa.

Later Patane moved the business to a small cottage at 4432 Leavenworth Street. When the city told him that he couldn’t operate his business out of the house, he recalled seeing how popular pizzerias were on the East Coast and decided to open one of his own. He put his carpentry skills to use and turned the cottage into a restaurant. La Casa Pizzeria opened in 1953 and served old fashioned Neapolitan-style pizza with ingredients that were made in-house.

The original La Case on Leavenworth Street. You can still see the roof of the original cottage with the restaurant built around it.

The small restaurant, which was big enough to seat 50, was such a hit that the family ran out of food halfway through its first evening. Not one to rest on his laurels, Patane came up with the idea of a mascot called “Peppi” to bring attention to his restaurant. In 1957 he put a neon sign of Peppi with a mustache and mandolin to work. The eye catching sign proved successful and he expanded the restaurant that same year. The mascot would go on to become a Leavenworth Street icon and has since been designated a local landmark, the first sign to receive such a designation.

Recent picture inside La Casa on Leavenworth Street.

La Casa remains a family run business more than 40 years after Patane passed away in 1984. With three locations, a food truck and pizza-by-mail operation, it is more popular than ever. The restaurant, which has reportedly been featured in a Jeopardy question, counts the local band 311 and director Alexander Payne among its famous fans. Payne even included shots of the restaurant in his film “Downsizing.” The other locations are at 8216 Grover Street and at 168th and Pacific Streets.

Back to that Omaha-style pizza. For those that are unfamiliar, it features a thin crust that is biscuit-like, tomato sauce that isn’t sweet and romano cheese (mozzarella can be swapped or added). The bottom of the pizza is grilled in a special gas-heated oven to give it a bakery-style crust. The most popular style has romano cheese and hamburger which is finely ground and slow cooked with onions and spices. This is the pizza that Food Network named as the best in the state. Meanwhile La Casa is one of just two Omaha pizzerias in the Pizza Hall of Fame. The other is Valentino’s.

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