Queens Tribune

The front door of Gaby’s Pizzeria on Hillside Avenue rarely stayed closed on Friday afternoon as dozens of hungry customers lined the aisles of eatery to wait for their slices of what has been proclaimed the best pizza in the United States—or at least according to the Rachel Ray Show.

Consistently ranked among the Top 10 pizzerias in New York on the Web site Citysearch and in City radio station contests, Gaby’s was recently picked by Rachel Ray to compete for bragging rights as the top cheesy pie place in the country.

Orlando Correale, one of the owners, said he was contacted a couple of weeks ago by program producers and told that Gaby’s would face off with the Chicago pizzeria Homerun Inn during the hour-long talk show set to air later this month.

Appearing on the show was exciting enough, he said, but winning the contest was like icing on the cake, or, in Correale’s case, extra cheese on the pie. Besides a shiny trophy, he also won Delta airline tickets.

“I’m just glad,” he said on Friday while he took a breather from kneading dough and serving slices. “A one-operation place can compete against the big boys.”

In the age of Domino’s and Pizza Hut and in a city with a pizza parlor seemingly on every corner, Correale said Gaby’s shatters the myth that small businesses can’t survive.

Creating a top notch product also is key, Correale said.

Using imported tomatoes from Italy, fresh cheese and a dough rolling technique that replaces the commonly used flour with olive oil, Gaby’s pizza emerges from the oven with a thick yet soft crust.

Not much has changed about the pizza since Gaby’s opened in 1964 when three brothers—Gurino, John and Stefano LoGiudice—took over a pizza parlor named Gaby’s near the intersection of 202nd Street on Hillside Avenue. With just a couple of tables inside, the pizza shop was small and virtually invisible until neighborhood people got hooked on the homemade dishes and began regularly flooding the parlor with family and friends.

A few years later the shop moved several doors down into a former fish market where it still stands today in the middle of a bustling shopping center.

Correale joined the brothers in 1980 and said creating the perfect pizza pie takes years of experience.

“It’s the hands; you can’t teach that,” he said of dough molding skills that produce an impeccable crust.

Last Friday, 16-year-old Shiva Galov sat down to eat his usual lunch of two pizza slices and a Coke.

“It’s probably the best pizza I’ve ever eaten,” he said.

Besides catering to everyday people, Gaby’s has also gained the loyalty of celebrities, like Hollis native and rapper LL Cool J and members of Run DMC.

Correale said the surge in the popularity of his pizza – his business has increased 15 percent – gives him hope of opening in new places, perhaps New Hyde Park, or even in other states.

But for now he wants to be a gracious winner; he plans to use his Delta airline tickets to take a trip to Chicago to visit his competitor’s pizzeria.

Gaby’s Pizzeria is located at 204-23 Hillside Ave.