Grace & Pat's: New Italian on East Passyunk

Mike Giammarino had quite an audience for the premiere on Sunday, April 26 of Grace & Pat's, a family friendly ristorante at 1533 S. 11th St. (215-336-3636), two doors from Fond and across from the Singing Fountain on Passyunk Square.

Sunday was Flavors of the Avenue, when thousands of people descended on East Passyunk Avenue, the city's hottest dining strip.

Giammarino is starting off slowly, opening Grace & Pat's - a cash-only BYOB - with a limited menu of pizza, appetizers, salads, and desserts. Then he'll phase in a pasta menu. (Menu is here.)

It's open from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Monday. (In other words, closed Tuesday.)

Specialty is what Giammarino calls "grandma-style" pizza: rectangular, thicker than Neapolitan, not as thick as Sicilian. It's what his grandmother, Grazia Carbone, made in Brooklyn. (Pasquale was his grandfather - hence the name. A portrait of the couple hangs in the restaurant.)

Giammarino is an old hand at pizza, as he shuttles between New York - where he owns the century-old Lombardi's in Manhattan - and South Philadelphia, where he owns Gennaro's Tomato Pie at 1429 Jackson St. near South Philly High.

When the former Da Vinci Ristorante became available, Giammarino thought he'd move Gennaro's there. But his customers complained and he decided to leave well enough alone. Gennaro's and its thin-crust pies will stay put.

If someone says Grace & Pat's looks like a subway station, that is accurate. A fan of New York kitsch, Giammarino has decorated the joint in all manner of NYC subway signs and antiques.