10
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 25-31, 2022
‘Raining tomato sauce from heaven’
Dom De Marco, patriarch of legendary Di Fara Pizza in Midwood, dies at 85
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Domenico “Dom” De
Marco, Brooklyn’s beloved
pizza patriarch who
founded Di Fara Pizza
and baked its legendary
pies for over 50 years, has
passed away, his family
said Thursday. He was 85.
De Marco’s death was
shared on Facebook by
his daughter, Margie De
Marco Mieles, and was
first reported by Brooklyn
Magazine.
“My world revolved
around my dad. I worked
alongside him since I was
a little girl,” De Marco
Mieles wrote on Facebook.
“He was the hardest working
man I know and he was
a leader and will remain a
leader through his legacy.”
De Marco Mieles did
not share a cause of death
nor when he had passed in
her post, but outside the
store Thursday afternoon,
her brother Alex, another
one of Dom’s children, said
that he had been on dialysis
for the past few weeks.
“The past few weeks he
was on dialysis, it was with
his kidneys,” said Alex De
Marco, who said his father
had passed early March 17.
Di Fara was closed that
day, to the chagrin of those
who’d traveled far-and-wide
to get a taste of the legendary
pie, though those who
did expressed condolences
for the fallen pizzaiolo.
“We were here in 2019,
we came here because you
hear about Di Fara everywhere,”
said Sam Kashour,
who was visiting Brooklyn
with his family from Ontario,
Canada. “It was one
of the best pizza, if not the
best pizza I’ve ever had.”
The visiting Canadian
family was just one of the
several that had trekked for
the iconic pizza, only to discover
the grim news. “What
a shame,” said Seth Robertson,
who was visiting with
his family from Nashville.
The presence of disappointed
tourists at the corner
pizza joint was a demonstration
of just how far
Di Fara’s lore had reached
over the years. Mayor Eric
Adams called De Marco a
“legend” whose legacy will
live on in every bite.
Tributes also poured in
from the pizza world, with
Lucali’s Mark Iacono writing
a heartfelt paean to his
idol on Instagram.
“You single-handedly
turned the pizza world upside
down,” Iacono wrote. “You
set the standard, and trails of
success for so many of us.”
De Marco — who immigrated
from Caserta, a
province in central Italy,
to Brooklyn in the 1950s —
opened Di Fara at the corner
of Avenue J and East 15th
Street in 1965 with a partner
named Farina, and the
name of the store remained
a portmanteau of the two
founders’ names even after
De Marco bought out
his colleague in the 1970s.
Over time, the pizzeria became
renowned throughout
the city, and De Marco’s pie
would eventually become
generally understood as one
of the best, if not the best,
pizzas in the entire city.
De Marco worked behind
the counter well into
his 80s. As he got older and
encountered more health
problems in recent years,
he slowly transitioned out
of his pizzaiolo role and left
the business in the hands
of his children.
“Hopefully he’s up in a better
place,” said his son Alex.
“And soon it’ll be raining tomato
sauce from heaven.”
Local legend Domenico “Dom” De Marco died on March 17. File photo by Arthur De Gaeta