Alfonso Orsi left his family of olive and grape growers in Tuscany at the age 16. First finding work laying railroad tracks between Chicago and Omaha, Alfonso eventually settled in Omaha where he found work as a baker for Louis Pardini. Pardini’s bakery was located at 2119 Pierce St. That building later became the home to both Rotella’s Italian Bakery and Malara’s Restaurant.
After serving for the Italian Army during World War I, Alfonso returned to the bakery. By 1919 he purchased it with his brother Ralph and renamed it Orsi Brothers. In the early days, they frequently made bread deliveries via horse and carriage. The business did well enough that they relocated to 621 Pacific Street in Little Italy in 1931.
The new location was previously a saloon that belonged to Schlitz Brewing Company. After expanding the building, he hired someone from Italy to build a brick oven that was constructed with thick walls of brick, sand, glass and hardwood. The oven would serve them well as it provided a unique flavor in addition to providing the only heat source in the building.
Alfonso suffered the death of his wife, Livia, during childbirth in 1939 followed by that of his brother and partner Ralph in 1944. Alfonso persevered and was joined by his son, Claudio, in operating the family business after he returned from World War II in 1945. The younger Orsi took over the business by 1949.
Claudio replaced the old oven with a modern and much more efficient natural gas oven which produced over 3,000 loaves of bread in eight hours. This was a huge improvement over the 320 that could be produced using the old oven. Despite that, he later said that the old oven was a work of art and that he wishes he had kept it.
Ori’s continued to operate a neighborhood bakery throughout the 1950s. It was until the late 1950s or early 1960s that Orsi’s began offering its famous pizza. On a side note, the Caniglia family introduced pizza to Omaha in 1946. It has since closed leaving La Casa which opened in 1953 as Omaha’s oldest pizzeria. While the second of its two founders, Alfonso, passed away in 1961 the business remained in good hands and saw the popularity of its pizza take its business to a whole new level.
Bobby, a third generation of Orsi’s took over the business in 1987. Like his father Claudio, Bobby was an avid bowler and played for the Professional Bowlers Association senior circuit. in the 1990s. Father and son are both members of the Greater Omaha Area Bowling Association’s Hall of Fame.
If it weren’t for a supportive community that rallied around the bakery following a devastating fire in 1997, they may have been forced to close their doors for good. Fortunately that wasn’t the case as neighbors and nearby businesses helped clean up the rubble in addition to raising funds which ultimately allowed them to rebuild in the exact same location. They took the opportunity to not only enlarge the space during the rebuild but to also replace the ovens once again.
In 2006 Bobby turned the business over to his son, Bob Jr, as well as longtime employee Jim Hall and their wives. Together they put their touch on the business by remodeling the interior and adding an Italian Deli and Imported Goods section so that they could sell hard-to-find Italian products. Bobby Sr. passed away in 2010 and Claudio in 2018.
Considered a part of the Orsi family, Jim continues to operate the bakery and pizzeria more than 100 years after it was founded by the Orsi Brothers. It continues to use the original recipes developed by their mother.
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