Demarco founded Di Fara’s in Midwood in 1965, a few years after emigrating from the Italian province of Caserta to New York. In 2004, he told the New York Times: “When I arrived here, I spent three months on Long Island, in Huntington, working on a farm … then someone put a bug in my head and said there was a good place on Avenue J . I didn’t even know Avenue J existed.”
He opened Di Fara with a business partner named Farina. “So when the lawyer drew up the document, he put two names together: Di Fara,” he recalled in The Times. In 1978, DeMarco bought out his partner but kept the name.
For most of the past 50 years, DeMarco has been directly involved in the creation of every pizza pie, importing ingredients from Italy several times a week. All pies were topped with fresh basil (cut with DeMarco’s scissors) and a signature drizzle of olive oil. Slices cost only 15 cents when it opened in 1965, but they cost $5 each now. However, the place was almost always packed with people trying to try it, and sometimes visitors could expect an hour-long wait.
Demarco’s attention to detail and passion for all things pizza has made Di Fara’s the city’s staple, frequently appearing on lists of the best from Zagat, Village Voice, The Times, Gothamist and more. Both chef Anthony Bourdain and former mayor Bill de Blasio declared Di Fara the best slice in town at various points in time.
Over the years, Di Fara has expanded to more locations, including the Lower East Side, a now-closed location in Williamsburg, and even Las Vegas. The original location has also closed for short periods several times, including in 2011 due to Department of Health violations and in 2019 when it was seized by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for tax evasion. At the time, a state representative told Gothamist that the pizzeria allegedly owed $167,506.75. De Blasio promised to help Di Fara bake pies again, and it did reopen a few days later, with a state representative saying, “We’ve reached a mutual agreement to move forward and we’re confident the business will act in good faith going forward.”