When did the first pizza delivery service open?
According to this pizza trivia page hosted by Mama Theresa’s restaurant chain, the first pizza delivery occurred in 1889, when Naples pizzeria owner Raffaele Esposito delivered a pizza to the king and queen of Italy, who were in town on a visit. The queen was eager to try the faddish new dish but couldn’t deign to visit a pizza joint, so she ordered in. The first pizzeria in North America was opened in 1895 in New York City, but pizza didn’t really catch on until after the second World War, when U.S. servicemen came home from Europe gushing over it. Many small pizzerias began offering delivery service with the advent of the car culture in the 1950s, but Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan is generally credited with establishing pizza delivery as a profitable enterprise. In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Tom Monaghan said that in the
