One of Omaha’s oldest pizza joints was started by Sicilian immigrants Carmelo and Vincenzina Magistro, who settled in Brooklyn, New York before coming to Omaha and then returning to their native country.
The couple married and had five children in Messina, Sicily before coming to the U.S. in 1958. They brought with them family recipes of Italian dishes. It’s those recipes that inspired them to open their first pizzeria after the family settled in Brooklyn.
The Magistro family would go on to open nearly 20 pizzerias in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, and California. It wasn’t until 1980 they moved to Omaha and opened the first Don Carmelo’s at 6102 Maple Street. I suspect its name was, at least in part, inspired by the popular movie character in The Godfather, Don Corleone. The word “Don” is a title of respect. So rather than calling it Carmelo’s Pizza, they called it Don Carmelo’s.
While Carmelo and Vincenzina moved back to Sicily around 1983, they left sons John, Carmen, and Tony to operate the restaurants. Likely the first New York-style pizzeria in Omaha, the family-owned business soon expanded to three locations in Omaha, one in Council Bluffs, and another in West Point, Nebraska. The midtown location at 3558 Farnam Street was particularly popular with students from nearby Creighton University. Its pizza by the slice option was also popular with office workers downtown and midtown. The location was said to be identical to the one the family operated in Brooklyn.
In 1987 Tony opened New York Pizzeria in Bellevue and expanded to Papillion and 160th and West Center Road afterward. Only one of the fast-casual restaurants had tables while the other two were takeout only. Carmen, meanwhile, pursued his passion for bodybuilding. That left John to operate the Don Carmelo’s locations for the time being.
The sons continued to prepare the food the same way their parents taught them, just as their grandparents had taught them. At Don Carmelo’s, John made dough six times a day with a small mixer. While it was more work, it had the added benefit of being fresher. He said the pizza was the perfect blend of cheese, sauce, and dough. In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, he once said, “It’s an art. I love it. You have to treat the dough like a woman; you have to be very tender, gentle.” His emphasis was the personal attention given to each pizza.
Over the years, some of the locations, such as the one in midtown, were sold to other owners while others were operated by family members. By 1992 they had sold the midtown location to the Mischo family, who continued to operate it until 2006. By 2009 Tony expressed interest in selling Don Carmelo’s franchises. Before doing so, the other locations that operated independently needed to sign licensing agreements. Failure to do so caused some of the locations to close, and as a result, just the Rockbrook Village and Elkhorn locations remained. Tony continued to operate the stores until his death in 2020.
While it may fly under the radar, Don Carmelo’s remains a family-owned business operated by Tony’s wife Amy and children Adrianna and Robert. It was named one of Omaha’s best pizza parlors by The Reader as recently as 2023.
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Sources
- Omaha World-Herald archives
- https://www.3newsnow.com/open/were-open-omaha-don-carmelos-pizzeria
- https://www.doncarmelos.com/about#:~:text=Don%20Carmelo’s%20Pizzeria%20%7C%20New%20York,nothing%20about%20Stromboli%20and%20Calzones.
- http://www.sjgrontkowskifuneralhome.com/Pages/view_obituary.php?obit_id=1752
- https://heafeyheafey.com/anthony-j-tony-magistro/
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