In these pizza days of thin crust versus thick crust, it’s hard to believe there was a time that Charleston had nothing as exotic as pizza. It took Charleston resident Donna LaBrasca’s father, Leonard, to bring the pie to the people.
In 1956, Leonard LaBrasca opened LaBrasca’s Pizzeria at 977 King, a few doors away from what is today Rodney Scott’s BBQ. There, he introduced the Holy City to the cheesy dish that has become today’s dinner staple. It was an immediate hit with Charlestonians, who were already familiar with Italian cuisine from the LaBrasca’s Spaghetti House next door — opened by Leonard’s Sicilian father, George, and his wife, Effie, in 1943.
“It had a thin crust with a little bit of chew to it,” Donna LaBrasca recalled, “a moderate amount of sauce and then traditional toppings: Italian sausage, black olives, bell peppers, anchovies. Nothing weird like arugula or pineapple on a LaBrasca pizza!
“I remember the mozzarella being really buttery. We didn’t make the mozzarella, but I remember it coming in blocks, being especially good and really creamy. It melted beautifully, with just enough stringiness to it.”
The pizzeria became part of the Charleston scene and formed LaBrasca’s childhood.
“My daddy’s pattern was to go in at 10 a.m., and get home around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.,” LaBrasca said. “If I wanted to see my daddy, I’d go to the restaurant, and if I wanted to see my grandparents, I went to their restaurant. His restaurant was like my second home. I started waitressing there when I was 14.”
A family affair
LaBrasca said her father had to be his own ad man, coming up with ways for the entire family to promote the restaurant.
“At one point, the LaBrasca girl cousins were dolled up in identical little late-1950s blue and white swimsuits,” she said. “Daddy rented a convertible and we sat on the back — you have to remember, all parenting was free-range parenting back then.
“We had little crowns and sashes that said ‘Pizza Queen,’ and at the corner of King and Wentworth, we gave people samples of pizza, little one-inch squares. I’m very outgoing like my daddy was, so I had a great time. I don’t know about my cousins. I don’t know if they were mortified or had as much fun as I did!”
When she turned 18, LaBrasca said her parents bought her a red halter evening dress and then, when her father got off of work around 1 a.m., they took her to several dive bars and strip clubs.
“He made a point to introduce me to their managers and bartenders and even a couple of strippers,” she said. “He told me, ‘If you ever go out on a date and you’re not comfortable, you come in here and they will take care of you until I get here.’
“This was before cell phones, and I remember whenever I was out on a date and we drove past all these bars and clubs and strip joints, I would think, ‘There’s a refuge for me in case this guy gets too physical.’ It was a great feeling.”
National attention
Although the pizzeria was popular primarily with locals, it did attract some national attention.
“One afternoon when I was 15, my daddy called when I got home from school and said, ‘These guys just came in here with long hair, they look like hippies,’” she said. “I knew Buffalo Springfield was playing in town that night, so I flew into town. Neil Young invited me to dine at the table with him and at the table next to us was Stephen Stills and Jim Messina!”
Another time, the restaurant was overtaken by “G-men” who, it turned out, were the Secret Service detail for the daughters of President Lyndon Johnson.
“Apparently one or both of President Johnson’s daughters were in town, and they wanted pizza, and this was the only place to get it,” LaBrasca said. “One or both of them ate at the restaurant after the Secret Service checked it out.”
As society changed, the restaurant did, too. After LaBrasca’s grandfather died, the spaghetti house closed. Then her grandmother, Miss Effie, opened Mama’s Tea Room on Sullivan’s Island. After civil unrest and a strike at the Medical University of South Carolina, the LaBrascas closed the pizzeria and opened LaBrasca’s East in Mount Pleasant near Shem Creek.
When LaBrasca was a senior at Clemson University, she drove home one weekend across the Shem Creek Bridge, and noticed that LaBrasca’s East windows were dark.
“I got home and daddy was in the living room,” she said. “He said, ‘I got you through school, now I’m done.’ He was just relieved and ready to do something that didn’t involve 18 hours a day. He became manager of a liquor store and at 7 p.m., he’d close the door and come home.”
Eventually, the tea room closed when LaBrasca’s grandmother got too old to maintain it. Sullivan’s Fish Camp is now at that site. Her father died in 1994, the year she turned 40.
The LaBrasca pizza era has ended, but she says the impact of Charleston’s first pizza lingers.
“Charleston didn’t have a tourist industry back then, so everybody who came in was local. I still run into people who tell me, ‘We went to your restaurant every Sunday or every time somebody in my family had a birthday.’ ”
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