Fierro Says So Long To His Family Pizzeria

John Fierro served his last slice of pizza shortly after 8 p.m. on Saturday night. After spending part of the day appropriately sheltering a few dozen teenagers from a tornado warning, he stayed behind while his co-workers filtered out of the pizzeria that his family opened 38 years ago.

Fierro locked the front door one last time and, sitting alone, reflected on a career behind the counter of one of East Hampton’s most beloved institutions.

“It was basically one person after another — it was very special,” Fierro said about his last day on the job, which he announced in advance with a Letter to the Editor published in The East Hampton Star. “It’s hard to explain what I’ve lived for the last 38 years. It’s a lifetime of memories. I’ve watched so many kids grow into fine adults, and now I’m serving their kids, and their grandkids.”

Fierro and his family opened their third Long Island pizzeria on Park Place in East Hampton on August 15, 1983. With his brother, Al, and his parents, Albert and Barbara, the Fierro family was already running pizzerias in Farmingville and Shirley but discovered something special, John said, when they landed in East Hampton Village.

“I was 22 years old when I opened the store with my brother and my dad,” John said about the memories that flashed through his mind during the quiet closing moments on Saturday. “I found out I was going to be a dad in that store. I found out my dad was sick when I was in that store. We also had a lot of parties. Fierro’s was a staple. I really got to feel the heartbeat of East Hampton.”

And I was there, nearly from the beginning

I am one of the lucky ones who grew up in East Hampton — well, sort of: we moved here from Colorado in 1985, when I was 10 years old — and managed to stay to raise a family here myself.

My mom, Susan, was a single mother with three kids. Fierro’s was a regular stop for any family on a tight budget, and for the adventurous teenagers who camped out in town with only a few bucks in their pockets. A slice cost 95 cents in those early days, compared to $3 today — which was then, and remains today, the cheapest lunch or dinner option in town.

My 12-year-old daughter, Ella, and my son, Charlie, 7, use fighting words if we suggest getting pizza from anywhere but Fierro’s, though they have come to enjoy Springs Pizza and quietly will accept La Capannina in Wainscott, even though they won’t admit it out loud. That’s because they equate Fierro’s with a larger sense of community. They understand its roots in the community, that my wife and I grew up going there, and that the connection that John and Al, and their family and co-workers, made with the community went way beyond a simple slice of pizza.

“The original people who came to my store are having grandchildren now,” Fierro said. “To me, that’s everything. It’s not money, it’s not pizza — it’s the friendships I’ve built.

“I cried last night. It was happiness, but sadness, too, because it’s the end of an era. I gave my love to that place.”

Albert Fierro died in 1998 and Barbara, John and Al’s mom, died in November of last year. Al retired earlier this year after selling his remaining portion of the business to East Hampton natives Emma Beudert and Joe Kastrati, who will operate the pizzeria into the future, with blessings from the family, and, according to John, a “fair rent” from he and his brother, who own the real estate.

John Fierro sold his portion of the business years ago, and, as he has done since then, he will spend this winter in Arizona near his children, John and Olivia, and his two young grandchildren, who live there full time. He plans to return to East Hampton next spring, though, and might even find his way back to the pizza business at some point.

But for now he is looking forward to some quiet time. Following his last day on the job at the pizzeria his family had built into a true center for community to gather, Fierro was tired, emotionally drained and in need of some rest and food for the soul.

He hopped into his car early on Sunday and drove to King Kullen in Bridgehampton. What was on the menu?

“I’m making meatballs,” he said, laughing uncontrollably at the irony of how he would spend his first day in retirement from Fierro’s.